Trump Tariffs Reinstated… And Retail Earnings Filter In 5/29/25
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Live from the Nasdaq Market site in the heart of New York City's Times Square, this is Fast Money. Here's what's on tap tonight. Where's the rally? Nvidia jumping today after a solid earnings report, but strength in the world's biggest semi shares doing little to boost the broader market. What does this tell us about the state of stocks? And hanging in there, despite all the tariffs, the price hikes, and the uncertainty over jobs, the consumer is still spending. The CEO of Tanger will be here to take us inside the numbers.

Plus, we're all over results out of Dell and Marvell Technology. Boeing gets a bounce as 737 MAX production starts ramping up. And a latte issues for Starbucks. Oh, boy. That was a quote.

What has one Wall Street firm downgrading the coffee chain? I'm Melissa Lee coming to you live from Studio B at the Nasdaq. On the desk tonight, Tim Seymour, Karen Feinerman, Dan Nathan and Guy Adami. We start off with the latest turn in President Trump's terror policy. A federal appeals court temporarily pausing a lower court decision that struck down the levies last night, allowing them to go back into effect for now. Megan Casella has all the latest in this back and forth. Megan.

Hey, Melissa, a huge back and forth on the trade front today, starting with that ruling overnight, of course, from the Court of International Trade, saying the president did not have the authority to impose most of the tariffs we've seen so far. But the latest, as you just laid out, is that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit did side with the administration, granting their request for an emergency stay at least temporarily. So the court said that until June 5th, they're giving the

plaintiffs some time to respond here. So a week from today. In the meantime, that means all tariffs that were in question here can remain in place. The administration had argued they would have to have this sort of stay, this sort of immediate relief. Otherwise, it would undercut ongoing trade negotiations and ongoing geopolitical conversations as well. The plaintiffs are already out, counsel for the plaintiffs, I should say, already out with a statement saying they view this as merely a procedural step and that they are confident

that the federal circuit will ultimately deny the government's motion. That would mean that tariffs then are on pause if the court then does not move forward with the longer term stay. Now, the White House, this is a win for them at least temporarily, but they're also seeming unbowed here. They are very much clear-eyed about the fact that they have other options if this one does not move forward. Take a listen here to Peter Navarro, the trade advisor, talking with reporters just in the last hour or so.

The court told us, they didn't all but tell us, they told us go do it another way so you can assume that even if we lose we will do it another way.

Melissa, I'll leave you with this. We know that there are still seven ongoing Section 232 trade negotiations on things like copper, lumber, semiconductors and critical minerals. All of those can lead to widespread tariffs. And there are a number of other statutes the administration is looking at as well. So this is certainly not the end of the road on the tariffs front, even if ultimately the court does rule against the administration.

Megan, as you mentioned, there are a lot of other routes the administration can take. Section 122, Section 301, Section 338. This all takes time, though. What happens to all the deadlines set in place for negotiations? For now, they're holding in place. The administration has been adamant all day today that they say they've been hearing from foreign countries that trade negotiations continue to be ongoing. So they say for now, the timeline holds with all of its various deadlines, as it already was. But you are

right that it takes time. Things like Section 122, I would look at that as potentially the first next step if they have to do it. There are limits with that. They can only be up to 15 percent. Tariffs can only last for 150 days. But they're more about the trade deficit. The court even said they thought that was applicable here. So I would expect that's the first place the administration looks if they want to move quickly, if these AEPA tariffs, the ones now in question, don't ultimately move forward.

15 percent, though, really changes the dynamics in terms of who has an upper hand. Yes. And that's a huge point to make. I think the biggest thing here is, while, yes, there is still so much uncertainty and countries really might still be likely to come to the table because they want that certainty, they still want to strike a deal. We're in a different place if we're no longer looking at 145 percent China tariffs, for example, 15 percent in the near term.

would be quite a different world. That doesn't mean we don't ultimately get higher. Things like Section 301 were used in the first term to impose pretty hefty tariffs against China, although not quite to the level we've been talking about recently. So they could still get there, but it means it's a longer timeline. It also, though, means there's a lot of uncertainty and potentially a patchwork of tariffs in the medium term. Megan, thank you. Megan Casella joining us from the White House.

It almost seems worse in terms of the uncertainty over companies and their ability to make decisions in the markets to digest what this means for forecasts. I think that's right. I was surprised the market sort of hung in there as well as it did. At one point last night, the S&P futures up, I think, over 80 handles. Some of it on NVIDIA, absolutely. Most of it on the back of that court ruling. And then at one point we went negative today, seemingly discounting what we were just talking about. Closed up on the day, so maybe it's just an NVIDIA day. But to your point...

I think what this just does is adds another level of uncertainty to an already uncertain environment. Yeah. And, you know, the one thing I just say is like the reaction to that taco trade thing. It kind of probably emboldens him a little bit. Right. So you have this back and forth between the market kind of calling you out on some narrative. And, you know, listen, the narrative didn't need an acronym. This is something that a lot of market participants don't.

We're talking about the timing of the rollbacks right after the threat was something like take it to the bank. Didn't they happen like a handful of times on like Sunday nights and this sort of thing? And so they were really focused on the stock market. But when this president is challenged like that, he usually kind of doubles down, at least if we're looking at the playbook from the first administration and like. So this is something that I think is going to stay pretty volatile if you have the courts going back and forth and you have him and his administration. We just heard Navarro.

They're going to find ways to get around it one way or another. And I think to your point about corporates, you know, we keep hearing this. We saw Best Buy today. We've seen some other retailers talk about this. They're not taking big whacks at their guidance, but they're signaling to some degree that this is going to continue until they have more clarity.

So we always think about the market hates uncertainty above all else, even above bad news. Bad news with some certainty around it, I think the market can digest, maybe reevaluate, and then move forward. This, as you're saying, this level of uncertainty to me seems ratcheted up materially, at least for the next, I don't know how...

a couple of weeks or longer so i was sort of surprised i guess to your point you know nvidia for sure that's helpful but um because what do you do what why are all negation negotiations are they going to continue right now or what would you do if you're the eu right do you wait and see let's just see how it goes scenario you do section 122 get 15 for five months or however long at 150 days

How bad is that? I mean, it changes the dynamics completely in terms of the need to come to a deal, I would say. I just thought today was such a strange day. You know, we have a negative GDP print on top of that. We had a great seven-year auction in the one place where we're kind of concerned. We reinstated the delayed tariffs. I mean, like, the whole thing is so wild. And yet markets...

It's almost as if markets don't seem to care about tariffs. In fact, Guy says this all the time, I totally agree with him. The market cares a lot more about the debt market. But we walked into today with markets that had rallied back from Independence Day. We had the tariffs pulled back. We had a court ruling. We've had a forestallment of that.

it's it's it's ultimately again the market has told you we don't care so much about tariffs but of course then we had a handful of g_d_p_ of data prints to including g_d_p_ where they really look the the trade data uh... in the g_d_p_ number was worse than expected uh... we have

initial claims, which are a leading indicator for unemployment, which were higher again this week. You had pending home sales of existing homes that are their worst number in two and a half years. So, no, the markets are saying, I don't care about tariffs. And today was kind of that weird day where tariffs don't exist anymore, but maybe they might. But the market's back to where it was. But the data

The sentiment, the dynamics, and I think this is what you're all talking about in terms of uncertainty, tell you that there has been an impact. And we'll see where we go. And the data, I mean, I would think that it would be even more cloudy in that, you know, with this window, it enables companies to bring in inventory right now in this small window where tariffs are sort of, you know. No one knows what they are. Personal consumption also was a big miss today. But, I mean, maybe that was if you think it was going on during April.

That was a very dismissed sort of kind of, I guess. I mean, there was a volatile time with sentiment really taking a hit. Yeah, just say this on the earnings front. You know, we're getting obviously late in the season or earnings season. You get a lot of these retailers. And so that, you know, commentary is a lot different than when we started earnings season with the banks. You know, and it seems like we came out of that week or so.

where a lot of these banks weren't talking about a weak consumer. And, you know, then we got into the meat of some of these other, you know, in tech, I think generally they were better than most people expected. And a lot of that had to do with this sentiment. When you have this sort of volatility that we had in almost every risk asset, you know, in April, you kind of get a little bit

I don't know what you call it, but like you're off sides a little bit. And then when you start hearing things where expectations are not that high, you end up feeling a lot better. I think we're on a little bit of a high where we just didn't have enough guide downs to make people feel like that we're going into a very rocky period until we get to some of these deadlines, whether it's the 90 days after China and the like. So, again, I think that sets up for disappointment now. It's like.

Back then, we were discounting some worst case scenarios. Now we're just discounting the fade. And Tim says this all the time. The pain trade feels higher. But sometimes when that's the feeling, you don't often get it that way. Or maybe Nvidia was the example of the company that despite all odds, despite being really handcuffed when it came to doing business in China, it still performed. It found the revenue someplace else and it beat the street. And maybe that is the tale that

A lot of other investors are hoping they can impute on other companies as we go through this trade war. No doubt. We talked about it last night. I mean, the quarter was, to me, it was especially in the form of the margins. We talked about that. It was very good for them. But it's not unlike what we saw back in January when we had a great quarter. The stock made an all-time high back then. Technically, it broke down the next day, and then it really never looked back over the ensuing months. So today's price action wasn't nearly as bad as what we saw a few months ago, but I don't think it was particularly bad.

great either. I mean, we open around the highs. We closed around the lows. It's something to watch over the next couple of trading sessions. Yeah. And so as you talked about, you guys did a great job last night, as you do talking about the NVIDIA numbers. I mean, AI demand, there's no question, there's no let up. So back to your market comment, Mel. I mean, I look at semiconductors leading the S&P today, as they should have after that NVIDIA, not by a lot.

But market leadership right now, if you need the market to go higher, is okay. And it's okay, and it's the triple Qs. It's the NASDAQ, which is leading the S&P. And again, these aren't runaway numbers, and there are plenty of folks out there, and Carter says this all the time, and he's right.

that the NASDAQ hasn't made a relative high against the S&P since all the way back to last July. Having said that, it's really gotten off the mat and it's right up against some resistance levels that could see it. I mean, that chart from February to now on a relative basis to the S&P

It looks pretty good. All right. Well, for more on the mood in China surrounding tariffs and trade, let's turn to CNBC senior correspondent Eunice Yun, who is in Beijing. Eunice, great to have you with us at this early hour in Beijing time. What is the mood there? Because it does seem to be a lot of highs and lows when it comes to the relationship between President Trump and President Xi.

Yeah, I think that there's a lot of concern here that the trade truce might not hold because each side has been taking steps that really seem to be threatening the possibility of having a greater trade negotiation and for these issues to be resolved. For example, on the U.S. side, the Trump administration, at least there are several reports now, is moving on restricting chip design software sales to China

and pausing exports for Chinese planemaker Comac. And then on top of that, it announced plans to what they described as aggressively revoking visas for Chinese students. And that move prompted a very angry response here, as you can imagine, by the Chinese. On the Chinese side, though, they aren't cooperating.

They have yet to remove the export controls for rare earths, which was something that was dictated in the Geneva statement. Today they called them international common practice. They are also threatening legal action against those who enforce the U.S.'s new chip curbs. They called those bullying. And then also they lodged a protest against

about the U.S.'s plans to pull student visas. That was seen as a step that is right in the negotiating playbook of Beijing to kind of throw in a lot of different unrelated issues to the matter at hand. So in this case, trade issues

in order to gain leverage themselves in those larger negotiations. And then on top of that, of course, is something that you guys were talking about, and that is the U.S. court rulings and what that means for President Trump's authority to be able to have that leverage of the tariffs. So all points to a whole lot more uncertainty. Guys?

Eunice, a few weeks back, I believe you were talking about the reaction of social media, the Chinese people to President Trump in the United States. And I'm wondering if that is as strong as ever and if Chinese consumers are themselves deciding not to patronize U.S. brands.

There is some of that. And definitely on social media, you do see the Beijing narrative. Of course, this is a censored media environment. So you do see this Beijing narrative that China has to stand up, really playing with the public. There have been several nicknames of President Trump as a comrade nation builder, of course, the nation being China.

There have also been several memes online of Americans kind of hunching over iPhone assembly lines. So there's a lot of that discussion going on. But I think that, at the end of the day, one of the big problems is that the economy is quite weak. People are worried

about these trade issues and the tariffs. They're concerned generally because they see the property here, the financial issues that people are having, the bad job market. All of that is something that's kind of playing into the sentiment here and the concerns about what all of this means for the economy. Does that make you think the government there

more willing to take extreme action in terms of retaliation against U.S. companies. I mean, so far, the responses that you outlined are very polite responses that are acceptable sort of in the realms of just normal diplomacy. But there are ways, you know, they can detain executives, they can inspect factories at will, they can shut down factories for inspections, all sorts of these softer ways that they can sort of exert their influence and control.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've already seen some of that, at least on a minor level, where they were going after individual companies. It hasn't happened yet in a broader sense, but it's something that's there. And I think that, you know, there's also been a lot of discussion here as to whether or not the Chinese would take the first step.

and maybe retaliate with other tariffs. But actually, that's not as harmful, even though it is harmful to the economy, it's not really as harmful more broadly. So you could see that the Chinese, if they were to choose to retaliate, would do something that would be less harmful for their economy, and that could include going after individual companies, American companies, in a bigger way. All right. Eunice, great to see you. Thank you so much. Eunice Yun, joining us live from Beijing.

Tremendous. Seamus is one of a kind. I'm going to win an award. In terms of...

the China trade in the dynamics now. I mean, things are a little different. I mean, I read something, and again, this is just anecdotal, but will President Trump decide to delist Chinese? I don't even know if they have the power to do that, but that's being thrown out there. So what does it mean to the stocks that we talk about all the time, the Alibabas? I don't think it's going to happen, but it's out there. What does it mean to names like Apple, who have clearly had a bullseye on their back now for years, seemingly impervious to it, but now it's seemingly having some impact. So I do think this is something we should talk about more.

Yeah. And in light of what we saw yesterday and again, the pushback towards this kind of retrenchment from the threats. I mean, you know, the question is leverage. Right. And at the end of the day, I don't think we have a ton of leverage. You know, I think the Chinese and this is your question to you. It's like, might they sit back? They're already trying to stimulate the consumer. Right. And stimulate consumption over there. They've been trying to stimulate their economy for a while. We know that it's weak.

But the idea that they're going to actually make some big broad stroke sort of deal in the next, what do we have, 60 days or something like that is not particularly likely. And so, you know, at the end of the day, for them to kind of

kind of wait it out and see what happens and you know the courts and all this other stuff and you know if they do start targeting our individual companies i think you know what they've done with nvidia or at least what trump has done with nvidia and what he's done with apple and possibly tesla now that elon's leaving the government who knows i mean those are pressure points you know they're pressure points

within their economy because they also employ a lot of people but the pressure points over here for some of the biggest companies in our country and I just don't think we have as much leverage at least as the administration is projecting. If you ask those four companies off the record how they feel about policy on China I mean they're not going to be thrilled even though

pushing back on China is a bipartisan issue in this country. And yes, it is time to make that market more fair. By the way, delisting Alibaba is only going to hurt U.S. investors. Let's just be clear. This is one of the most liquid stocks in Hong Kong. The stock is going to trade just fine. It's going to freeze up people that own it in ETFs and people that own it in their retail trading accounts. So I also just think that, you know, being because the other side of this is getting indignant that China is stimulating their economy by supporting manufacturing. I mean, there's been a lot of rhetoric that over the last week

that that's something that isn't good being a good trade partner, when in fact this is what China does. That's what the U.S. does. I mean, we support manufacturing. It's a manufacturing economy. We're trying to protect U.S. steel to protect manufacturing jobs. Right, we're trying to create tax incentives that allow for incentives and depreciating them more quickly. But they

They do. I mean, China does have this government situation where they don't really need to care exactly what the people think. Well, and they're focused on consumption, right? So they have a 40% savings rate over there. We have a 4% savings rate here, right? So we are consumers, right? And so when Secretary Besant says...

Our Treasury Secretary Besant said, you know, the American dream is not flat screen TVs. Well, it is. I mean, like, that's what we want and that's what we buy. And they just don't do that. Now, they pile it into a bunch of crappy real estate that's going to zero. But that's also part of this whole thing, too. But the idea that we can force them to increase consumption and take more of our experts. They're trying to force their own consumption, though.

That's what I mean. No, I know. I mean, but my point is it's like it's not likely to change. It's not likely to change in 90 days. It's not likely to change in probably 90 years. We're talking about decades of bad demographics, too. I mean, it's not easily reversed, and that's a policy issue. Coming up, a lot of earnings action to bring you Dell, Marvell, Costco, and more reporting results tonight. The details from those quarters ahead, plus Boeing's big day. The CEO weighing in on max production and China deliveries. The comments he made that investors flying high don't go anywhere fast when he's back in town.

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Welcome back to Fast Money and Earnings Alert on Dell. Shares off their after-hours highs after a mixed quarter. The company did, though, give a better-than-expected revenue outlook. CNBC's Christina Parts-Nevelis is here with the details. Christina. Call still going on. The guide really puts them in sharp contrast to competitors like HP Inc., which recently cut its guidance, recently being yesterday. The real story here, though, is Dell's AI servers. Dell is projecting a massive $7 billion in AI server shipments this quarter ahead of their own expectation, and they say it clears nearly half of their $14 billion year-to-date backlog.

They're riding the wave of demand from major players like Elon Musk's XAI and CoreWeave, who need these high-powered servers for their data centers. But here's where it gets a little bit interesting. Despite the bullish quarter outlook for Q2, Dell is keeping their full-year revenue guidance unchanged. That seems conservative given in the momentum, but management says the PC refresh cycle is still lagging behind historical patterns.

and the consumer market remains top they're only expecting low to mid single-digit growth in their client business the AI server business also is unpredictable by nature these are complex a scheduled deliveries that depend on customer building out a data centers with specialized cooling infrastructure it's just it's difficult to build lastly they did say guidance includes everything they know about Tara so just found that discrepancy a little interesting Irish doctor don't ask them about that and that was

literally the question they got twice at least twice on the call so just to be clear the quarter that they just reported came they came in a little bit ahead on revenue right correct and so they're keeping revenue guys so basically for the rest of the year it's going to be lower than expected so the q2 guide much higher so for a total they're shipping over 9 billion dollars and they're expecting 15 billion for the year which really just leaves about 3 billion in the subsequent uh

Q3, Q4, right? So you're really seeing this uptick in shipments. On the call, it was asked, who are you shipping to? Is it Corweave, which is the assumption? And they said they wouldn't talk about customers at all and give details about that. But that would be the assumption. They also said, too, they did see a little bit of demand pull forward for, you know, the fear of the tariffs. Mm-hmm.

This is a relief for you after HP. - Yes, right. Yeah, after HP. I mean, even though it's a slightly bigger part of their revenue, it is a much smaller margin business that HPQ like, you know, the client versus the infrastructure, which is much more important, much bigger margins, but still a little miss on the margins.

I think though that I'm not so put off by that guidance. I never understand, particularly in an environment like this, why do you need to go out on a limb at all for guidance?

The demand is still there unless it was just pulled forward. But I believe that it will be. I think video is telling us it's there. Right. And they need to improve the margins a little bit. And I think with these scaled bigger, the margins will get bigger. The gains in the after hours are getting smaller here, guys. You've got to believe their full quarter guide because, to Christina's point, I mean, this quarter wasn't great. Karen just said margins were.

Operating margin 7.1%. The street was closer to 8%, which is not good. So you got to believe them when they say, you know, they raised EPS guidance for the full year and they slightly raised revenue guidance for the full year. So you got to believe they have some clarity there.

that nobody else seems to have right now? Well, they keep guiding down and then kind of coming in line with their guide. I mean, that's what they did last quarter. You think about like their servers, their AI servers, it's like 15% of their sales, right? So if you think about the PCs, people have been waiting for this upgrade cycle for like AI PCs.

It's not coming. I mean, it's not coming anytime soon. That's not like a good way to play this generative AI trend. And so here's a company that keeps giving weak guidance. They come in line with it and it's not that impressive. So the stock is at a big run. I just don't think you chase it here. I thought they gave themselves a lot of room to pull back by saying based upon the tariff environment so far. I mean, they added that onto the end. Also, the COO pointed out that some of the deflationary impact of some of the cost inputs is fascinating because that's not necessarily what I would have expected to hear.

Christina, thank you. Thank you. Christina Parts Nevelis. Stock is up half a percent right now. Coming up, Boeing gets a bounce how the planemaker is cranking up 737 max production and what one airline CEO is saying about quality. That is next. Plus Costco, Gap, Ulta and American Eagle all on the move after reporting the details and the numbers from those quarters ahead. You're watching Fast Money Live from the Nasdaq market site in Times Square. Back right after this.

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welcome back to fast money shares of boeing seeing a bounce today ceo kelly ortberg speaking at the bernstein strategic decisions conference saying he hopes to have 737 max production hit 47 planes a month by the end of the year that is the company works with regulators to get itself back on track from a series of safety issues ortberg also saying boeing will resume deliveries to china next month southwest air southwest airlines ceo bob jordan also giving the company a vote of confidence highlighting that the core

quality of the 737 MAX is getting better, even if deliveries have been slower than he hoped. Boeing actually hitting a 16-month high in today's session. Tim? Being bent, being bland. Z-incarbed. Yeah. It's B-incarbed. Good. Incarbed. So it's a legit B. It's a legit B. As opposed to like a Fugazi acronym.

I think the dynamic in terms of moving the share price to me is around 737 and it's around free cash flow. One leads to the other also. But but the fact that you're getting anecdotal comments from an important client in Southwest Air who also really wants to get as many of these things as they can. I mean, they also pointed out almost in the same breath that we need more of these planes. We're not getting them fast enough. But by the way, the ones we're getting are in pretty good shape, which is wonderful.

we need to hear i i think you're long this name and i think you're long this name for the next few years scott kirby also this morning on squawk box talking about him feeling like boeing's really sort of gotten their act together and tim talks about all the times a cash flow story and when you start to get your deliveries much higher that cash flow spigot can come on which has not been on and

I agree. It's early on in the Boeing turnaround. What is that thing you say when it goes from really bleep to just bleep? When you make the most money. And I think that's where we still are. I think $2.35. I mean, we've been saying this stock could trade into the $2.30s, and fundamentally nothing can change other than the stock price. What's ever stopped you from going with the full potty mouth? I don't do that, Tim. It's a family show. It is a family show, but I feel like, yeah, I feel like you've been learning to let it go. Of course they're children. They're not.

Well, yours are not. They're old enough to know that. Well, yours might be. They might be. Probably are. They probably are. That's not the margins. The margins are much higher, Mommy. All right, coming up, more retail earnings on the radar. Costco, Gap, Ulta, and American Eagle all just reporting the details from those quarters and what one outlet mall CEO sees in store for the consumer when Fast Money returns.

Missed a moment of fast? Catch us anytime on the go. Follow the Fast Money Podcast. We're back right after this.

Welcome back to Fast Money. Stocks closing higher today and pacing for weekly gains. The Dow up more than 100 points. The S&P and Nasdaq both up 0.4%. Shares of Best Buy getting hit after results this morning down more than 7%. The company cutting its profit outlook due to tariffs and saying it's already hiked some prices. And some other retailers on the move after hours. Ulta Beauty higher after beating top and bottom line estimates and raising earnings and same-store sales guidance. American Eagle lower after missing revenue expectations.

and gap dropping despite a strong earnings beat the company's reaffirming full year guidance which does not include the impact of tariffs more on that when jim cramer speaks exclusively with gap ceo richard dixon on mad money tonight right well costco is also out result with results shares uh just turning lower after the company beat on the top of the bottom lines the conference call just about 30 minutes in melissa rupko has been listening in melissa what's the latest hey melissa so i heard a little bit more about the quarter and

The company beat quarterly earnings, just as a reminder, and it also posted revenue that was roughly in line with the quarter. Comparable sales rose about 8 percent. E-commerce sales jumped about 16 percent, excluding gas and foreign exchange. And on the call, the warehouse club talked about some of the advantages it has.

It's outperformed the S&P 500 with share gains of 10% so far this year. It has a potential edge in tariffs because it's known for attracting value-driven shoppers. On the company's earnings call, CEO Ron Vakris said Costco's looked for ways to reduce tariff costs. It rushed in a bunch of shipments ahead of tariffs.

It also has been trying to source more of its private label products, Kirkland Signature, from regions where they are sold. And he said that it's turning -- it's diverting more of its products

to places that are not as affected by higher tariffs. So, for example, instead of bringing them into the U.S., it can bring them to other markets. Even with the tariffs, Vacker says Costco has lowered the price of some items, and those include eggs, butter and olive oil, Melissa. All right, Melissa, thank you, Melissa Repco. It's been seen...

for a long time as one that can avoid tariffs, that can manage its portfolio of products. Also interesting from the call, they're talking about Kirkland Signature products outpacing the overall sales growth, so very strong in terms of their private label brand here, Tim. I think, you know, and the operating margin expansion was actually better than expected, and I think that's something to be happy about, but I

Look, I don't know. Costco's multiple is just so tough for me. I haven't owned it. So maybe this is scornful on my part because I haven't been in this trade. But I'd rather be in Wal-Mart.

Hard to wrap your head around. I mean, right here, it's probably 50 times next year's numbers ish either side of. But Tim's right to bring up operating margins, which are better than expected. They operate really well. They're getting basically rewarded for that operation in terms of the valuation. But if you don't crush when you're trading at 50 times, you're going to sell off a little bit. But I don't think you run that far away from Costco. I mean, the argument for Walmart is the argument for Costco. It's sort of the same higher income demographic.

They've got the membership revenue. These are people who come back time and time again. Yes, although Walmart is now on sale relative to Costco. Yeah. And has been for a while. But that multiple is demanding, as Guy would say, Walmart as well. But I'm long Walmart and also...

sad that i haven't owned costco for years and it's always been oh it's too expensive and that was the wrong move for years obviously great american retailer um walmart is too and i think walmart probably learned a lesson a little bit about like kind of telegraphing what they're going to do with prices based on the you know the uncertainty around tariffs and you know costco probably

took a beat on that and uh... you know some of the things that they're saying are a lot more constructive than they were three months ago when they reported on the best remember stock up down you know a few percent close down six percent that's a massive move uh... for a stock like this so again you know i think they're probably a bit more careful and you might see uh... increased conservatism about what folks are going to say about how they're managing tariffs in front of uh... you know this administration that seems a little bit vindictive

Well, for more on the state of the consumer, Stephen Yaloff, CEO of outlet mall operator Tanger, joins us here in-house at the Nasdaq Market Site. Stephen, great to have you with us. Welcome to Fast Money. Thank you. Costco on this call was just saying that the consumer is more choiceful. Are you finding that the consumers who go to a Tanger outlet, they are more choiceful as well? For sure. And they were also, we were talking about the value consumer as well.

And that's really what you get when you come and shop at one of our shopping centers. It's brands you love, great pricing every day. I think that's what the consumer is looking for. What have you noticed in terms of any sort of traffic changes between April to May? Well, interestingly, when tariffs were first announced in the beginning of April, our traffic began to build and continues to build. So our traffic in April and May outpaced last year's traffic by close to 5%.

How do you view the market in terms of expansion and where you expand and how you expand in this environment? Well, you know, right now it's really more of an acquisition market than it is a new development market. And we built a shopping center in Nashville and we're purchasing assets currently at almost 50 percent of the cost of the replacement cost. So those trade we're making those trades right now.

so one thing i always wonder about is consumer sentiment versus what the consumer actually does so we give these numbers today consumer sentiment well below and you're talking about april was really good

How often do you get a divergence between consumer sentiment and what the consumer is actually spending? Well, you know, it was interesting. In March, we saw our traffic picked up, but the sales were down. And then in April, our sales and traffic began to track one another. So, you know, expectation-wise, you know, I think one of the things that we're doing, particularly as a reaction to tariffs, is with all the uncertainty in the market, we're encouraging a number of our retailers, particularly those with back-to-school product, to start thinking about pulling back-to-school up a

a little bit sooner. We're gonna start our back to school sale in June 1st. - Whoa, hold on a second. - The school is not over. - We haven't even gotten out. - The school's not over. So you gotta be very thoughtful with regard to the geographies 'cause they are out in certain parts of the country. - Right, right. - But not in others and we're mindful of that. But the point is that if there is a consumer that wants to make purchases,

that's concerned that pricing may be higher in the back half of the year, that product may be more scarce in the back half of the year. If they want to get the things they want, right now is a good time. And with partners, whether it's Nike, Adidas, some of the partners in our shopping centers, we're working with them to start that promotion a lot sooner. Steven, when I go to your Riverhead outlet all the time, it's everything I need. And you can run the gamut in there, though, even though it is value with great brands,

There are within that skew. I mean, there are certain parts of discretionary spend that aren't doing so well. And we we talk about the athleisure and the footwear space. What can you see with your clients? You don't need to name any names. But if you looked at the stocks, you know, Decker's just had a really tough print, even though there's a line outside of that store whenever I drive by it. So, you know, help us understand what's in your lot and who's doing well as far as you can tell. Yeah.

Well, first of all, we're diversifying the mix in those centers. So, you know, I mean, we just added Shake Shack. So Shake Shack's coming soon. Right on. That's good. And the reason why that's an important part of the story is because we understand that consumer is really shopping a little bit more locally now. So that local consumer wants more diversity of product when they come and shop in our centers. And, you know, you hit the nail on the head from footwear to apparel to hard goods. You know, hard goods stores seem to continue to be doing well, particularly out in Riverhead. We've got a great collection of them.

As far as footwear is concerned, even though Nike might have reported a couple of bad quarters, we still see lines and people lining up to get Nike because it's brand at great pricing. And that's just a really important part of the story. We keep on hammering on that messaging, but it's critically important. People aren't looking for commodities at the best price when they shop with us. They're looking for the things they want.

at the best possible price. And we deliver that every day. Every day on sale, we deliver that every day. So I think that's really important. Variety of offering plus great value encourages the customers to come. They stay longer when they're there and they buy more things built

bigger baskets. And you talked about that on the first quarter earnings on May 1st. I thought, I looked at the quarter, I thought it was really good. And then 10 days later, you said, you know what, it's so good, we're going to authorize a $200 million stock repurchase plan. So I think that's you saying, we just think our stock is too cheap here. Do you want to speak about that? Well, we do. I mean, our stock in the last,

Several months got up as high as 36, 36.50. We were able to sell some stock at ATM at that pricing, some forward stock. We've got about $70 million worth of forward equity that we can draw from. Like I said, we're in acquisition mode right now and we're looking to buy assets.

That being said, you know, at the $30, I guess we crossed over $30 today. But at $30, yeah, I think the stock is extraordinarily cheap, and I think it's a great deal. So if there's investors out there that are looking to buy a great stock, I think that's what we're selling. Stephen, thank you for coming by. Appreciate it. My pleasure. I hope you'll come back. Stephen Yaloff. Great.

Yesterday, your final trade was XRT Sell. Listen, I know we talked about Amicron yesterday, and it might have been like a one-off situation. The stock gapped up by 25%, closed on the low of the day. It filled in the entire gap today. And so it just tells me a little bit about where investors are in some of these names. They're just not acting particularly well, even on better-than-expected results. And so it's just not a place I want to be, given all the uncertainty. Given what we've talked about for the last 44 minutes, it doesn't lead me to want to go buy retailers.

So it didn't feel it did definitely to do well today. I think it was on the sentiment news like a bunch of other retailers filled in half the gap or so. I actually bought some more today because to me this valuation Abercrombie Abercrombie is it's just too cheap for what's happening in their business. Great balance sheet and Hollister.

I think Tanger's getting caught up in sort of people's concern about to Dan's, but it's different. This is like an operational play and just they're just operating better. And if you go back and actually look at the quarter, I think you'll come to the same conclusion. I agree with Dan. And I also agree, though, there's a lot of these brands in discretionary. I mean, Nike to me is a buy here. And you've you've you've ridden through so many dynamics that are company specific. But I also just think the cyclicality of that business is such that, you know, this is the one I want that has sold off on on those others.

You can sell them. Coming up, Musk clocking back in what the CEO stepping away from Doge could mean for Tesla stock and how EV competition is faring amid all the changes, the details when Fast Money returns.

welcome back to fast money elon musk announcing last night that his time at doge is coming to an end raising hopes of tesla investors that he will once again focus his attention on the ev maker musk's post coming amid reports the company is targeting june 12th to launch its long-awaited robo taxi in austin tesla shares were up slightly today but are down more than 11 percent this year it's interesting i mean if he is going to go back to sleeping on the factory floors and being 100 laser focus on his companies

and stepping away from politics because he has done enough to use his own words that's probably a good thing agreed but is this recent run-up anticipation of him and now it's sort of and now now that news is out I will tell you we talked about this this level is this textbook 50 retracement of the all-time high we saw post-election and that 220 low that we talked about being support so I think you sell the stock here

You're watching Uber today. I was. I just thought, okay, why is Uber down so much? Maybe it was somewhat of this consumer sentiment. But was it this Tesla announcement, which has been out there for a long time? Now, we often could say, all right, he said, which Lyft as well. But okay, now it's, you know, two weeks away or less than two weeks away. I kind of think it is going to happen on a small scale. Right. So I don't know why, but I...

That, to me, is a dumb reason to sell Uber today. Also, which factory floor is he sleeping on? I mean, there's like 16 companies that he's running. So not 16. That's hyperbole. But no, I think ultimately, though, that's not the challenges around Tesla's share price, I don't believe are from the CEO's office. I mean, I think there are some industry specific. I think they're where we are with competition. I think they are where we are with what's going on in the auto space.

You know, it's interesting, $1.1 trillion market cap. And if you think that this is a lot of it tied to optimists and then self-driving, well, you go over and look at Google, right? And they have Waymo. And so you tell me what is being considered for the valuation within there. They got like- $60 billion.

Yeah, it's nothing. I mean, like my point is, and they're so far ahead of them. And I say to myself, I just don't get it. Listen, we get it. It's just divorced from fundamentals all the time. The fundamentals of the auto business could not be worse. They've been in a price war for three years and they're actually worse than they ever have been. And when you see BYD cutting prices up to, I don't know, 34% on 22 models of cars, these guys have four models of cars. They have two models that do 90% of their sales.

And I just don't see him coming out of this when you have 10 percent auto gross margins. And, you know, the other thing is him sleeping on the factory floors is probably not helping because the brand degradation that he has caused for this brand is a bit of the problem. And I don't think more of him is better for sales. All right. Coming up, a decaf call on Wall Street. My analysts aren't feeling the jolt from Starbucks lately and why they see risks to Brian Nichols turnaround plans. That is next. We're fast to two.

Welcome back to Fast Money. Shares of Starbucks getting roasted after a downgrade at TD Cowen. The firm lowering its rating on the coffee chain to a hold from a buy saying labor investments will eat into profit. Analysts further warning that normalization of same-store sales could be delayed by increased competition, weaker value perception and a potential recession. After rallying to start the year, Starbucks stock is now down at nearly 8% in 2025.

There are a lot of issues here with Starbucks. You didn't just do that. No, no, no. It was all the analysts. The analysts in this report. Because that sounds like something our crack staff would write. But that actually is pretty good. Like totally cheesy. There are a lot of issues that we have been pointing out. I was shocked that the stock did as well as it did from the time he was announced in August into December. The stock went up 50%. Now it actually sort of makes sense. But 72 has been support a couple times now.

Bad tape gets you to 72 in Starbucks, I think. Andrew Charles at Cowan is going with a latte moving pieces. So, yeah, it does seem to be a popular thing. But this is a much harder turnaround than I think anyone could have expected, possibly Brian Nicol. My please, can we continue? Can we brew coffee again? These machines that make like basically one at a time is not brewed coffee. The reason I went to Starbucks.

30 years ago or 40 years ago, whenever it was for the first time, was because they had like that strong kind of smoky coffee and whatever. So the machines are like the machines here at the Nasdaq. It grinds the beans and makes the coffee on demand. It does it all one cup at a time. But it's not brewing coffee. And it doesn't taste like the old coffee. More you know. More you know. Well, that was part of it. They were saying proprietary survey data indicate that people think that it's not a good value proposition.

It's too expensive for what it is. If they brewed the coffee, I'd continue to pay almost anything. Well, you pay anyway. Yeah. It's a great brand. I guess what I'm saying is it's a great brand. And I think it's getting better. Up next, final trades.

Final trade time, Tim. You can find Nike in the Tanger Island Mall, and I think you can find Nike on the move higher. Karen. Yes, A&F. My final trade yesterday, a little early, obviously. I like it again. What more? Dan. Yeah, I think Dell is a sell. Guy. You know what you couldn't find yesterday? Fans in the seats at Shea. What are you talking about? We're going 36,000 fans. SKT. SKT. The obsession over our team.

Thank you.

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