good afternoon. welcome to "power lunch" alongside courtney reagan i'm tyler. glad you could be with us today. president biden will deliver the state of the union tonight and corporations are expected to be a target. we will discuss what the president's proposed tax increases corporately would lean for business and the stock market. >> plus we'll talk to the ceo of rivian as he unveils his latest vehicle at what could be a make or break moment for the company. news already coming out of that event. first a check on the markets. let's see where we are here at

2:00 in our trading day on the east coast. nasdaq composite leading the way again up 1.6%. the s&p 500 adding more than a percent. dow jones industrial are the laggard but higher by half a percent and chip stocks helping to boost that. nvidia now up 85% this year. it's added almost a trillion dollars in market cap in 2024 so far. it's only march 7th. micron higher on the upgrade from stifel and intel gaining on reports it's expected to receive $3.5 billion from the government to develop advanced chips for the military. all about the chips. >> $900 a share. >> i mean. >> for nvidia. i remember when it was 700. >> unbelievable. >> i remember back when it was 700 about two weeks ago. >> gosh. let's move on now and begin with the state of the union. the president is expected to propose, among other things, a 21% minimum tax on corporations and a quadrupling of the tax on corporate buybacks.

bob pisani joins us from the nyse and you followed buybacks for years and what would the impact of what the president is proposing be? >> it likely wouldn't change things too much. corporate america is flush with cash and they're buying back a near record amount of stock this year. that's good news. president biden the taxes on the buybacks reportedly going to propose an increase in the buyback tax from 1% to 4%. the theory imposing additional taxes might encourage companies to invest in hiring more people or capital expenditures. the validity of that is debatable no doubt corporate america appears to be embarking on a buyback spree. february the second month strongest ever and '24 looks to be a record year. wide latitude in what it does with the cash flow but it falls into buybacks, dividends and capital expenditures. the percentage that goes to bucket ebbs and flows corporate america has shown a greater

pension for buybacks and the reason is buybacks are immediate gratification for the shareholders. in theory it should reduce shares outstanding and improve earnings her share. what causes companies to spend more on one bucket over another if you're a tech company investing in ai technological growth will cause you to expend more. it's really about economic growth. higher growth means more money to hire more people. slower growth likely means diverting available cash to buybacks and dividends. would higher taxes really discourage buybacks and divert spending to more hiring? in early february meta authorized an expanded $50 billion share buyback program equivalent at that time to 5 a% of the shares outstanding. under the current tax the company would pay $500 million. under biden's tax the proposed one it would rise to $2 billion. that's a lot of money, but it's not clear if it would cause meta to divert money from buybacks to capital investment and hiring people.

the bottom line here, guys, it's economic growth that encourages companies to hire. back to you. >> all right. bob, thank you very much. bob pisani reporting. these higher tax proposals the continuation of what corporate leaders consider to be an anti-business stance from the biden administration. listen to what conna cophillips ceo said earlier on cnbc. >> one you poll most of the ceos today it's attacking us from every direction, every three letter acronym in the government today. it's the blm, the ftc, the sec, now coming out with some of their rules and that -- it's just that environment that is not pro business, but not sort of enhancing what we could be doing better than what we're doing today. >> joining us now is edded mills, managing director and washington policy analyst at raymond james. glad you can be with us. respond, why don't you, to ryan lance's comment that this is a

validly anti-business administration. that seems to be what he was saying there. do you agree? >> i think what the biden administration would say is they would point to a lot of the different fiscal stimulus programs that were passed under this administration, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the inflation reduction act, chips and science act, all being what we considered at raymond james the hidden stimulus in this economy that is causing businesses to invest a lot in manufacturing, invest a lot in the workforce, driving up wages, keeping people employed and part of why we have been calling for a soft landing. i do think what we heard from the biden administration, cnbc had lael brainard on today, talking about how this is not the biden agenda, this is the american people's agenda, and that's because a lot of these things, despite what we might not like in the business community or for corporations, has a lot of popular support, so

a lot of these things have to be viewed more for the political language than kind of through this market angle we're required to look at it. >> let's talk about possible tax heights. bob mentioned one potentially on buybacks. i'm curious there. corporate minimum tax increasing the maximum rates there or the rates there to 15 -- from 15 to like 21% or something like that. are those likely to pass in any -- they're not going to pass this year but in a new congress and if biden wins, he would ask for them, presumably, his opponent would not. >> yeah. this is all about next december's expiration of the 2017 trump era tax cuts. on december 31st of next year the corporate tax changes are permanentbut the individual tax provisions all expire. this really is a political speech tonight setting up what is going to be a contrast

between the biden campaign and the trump campaign. what biden will be saying is if i get re-elected we shouldn't keep the corporate side permanent. if you want to extend out some of the individual tax provisions, we should balance this off with changes to the corporate tax code. now that doesn't happen unless there's a demographic sweep, but also, what's keeping a little less pressure on democrats on the individual side is that if democrats do nothing if they win the election in november, that $10,000 cap on s.a.l.t. also got away. that's about a trillion dollar tax cut for a lot of constituents of democrats especially in these high cost states. >> we have a long way to go until the election and we know things are very dynamic and change all the time, but as of right now it does seem that former president trump may have a slight lead over current president biden for a possible re-election. if that happens, what do you expect the market will do or

will behave at this point? >> yeah. courtney, this week we put out a report here at raymond james that looked at the election probabilities and as the things stand right now, we do think that former president trump has a slight lead. however what was interesting to us when we look at the composition of congress you could make an argument that if trump is re-elected there's a high probability of a republican sweep. if biden is re-elected there's a decent re-election of a democratic sweep. on these tax ssues, if you have a sweep, that unlocks reconciliation and that's the ability to do this on party line. even if there's not a sweep, we believe whoever is in the white house is going to make the determination on these fiscal cliff issues like taxes and so the market will react with some uncertainty in that democratic sweep or biden re-election, but it's not all bad as i talked about the fact that the s.a.l.t. cap goes away. that's a real positive for a lot of folks if it is a trump

re-election, the expectation will be most, if not all of the trump taxcuts stay in place after 2025. >> ed mills, thank you very much for running us through this ahead of the state of the union tonight. >> thank you. so how will the president's proposed tax increases impact the stock markets. we asked ed mills about the future. our next guest says he's concerned about what gets traction in the past than what's proposed. let's bring in the portfolio manager at grady investments. thank you for being with usp we have the state of the union tonight, the election is some ways off. many people who will be paying attention to what biden has to say potentially the unofficial launch of this new campaign, but will markets actually react if it is just a proposal at this point as we suggest? >> short answer is no. i really honestly don't think so. i think everybody is in relative agreement that nothing is going to happen until november, right.

we're kind of in a period of stasis where they're going to go out and run. that's what they're going to go out and do right now and a lot of proposals as a result of running and as we get closer and as we get nearer to the election time, you know, i think even a month beforehand in 2016 there was a probability it was hillary's to lose at that point. you never know beforehand. we never take a shot. we never try to forecast all that stuff beforehand. we'll monitor and pay attention, but really, especially around portfolio actions we are not going to do anything in advance of these potential type of things that really don't have a lot of traction to pass up until after the agendas are set after the election. >> our previous guest ed mills suggested that some of the programs that biden had put into place are kind of just now really starting to pay off, and he called it a hidden fiscal stimulus, things like the chips act and infrastructure bill. when you look at where we are currently and with the state of the inflation and the state of the economy, do you believe that

recession is off the table? do you believe that some of these policies have helped that or is it all about the fed? >> it's funny, i don't think they're that hidden. you know, we've been talking about the inflation reduction act, reshoring the chips act is all within that and if you look at the performance of the industrials who would benefit from structure and these kinds of things it's about the best performing sector out there. i think over 48% of companies in the s&p 500 are at all-time highs. it's not really all that hidden. the companies have benefitted from that and frankly their valuations have certainly benefitted from it. so to answer your second question, whether a recession, i just -- i don't see where is it, where is the recession at? i really don't see it in the near term. there's nothing that would suggest us rolling over especially right now that would suggest that. we're in recessionary conditions. now are we going to continue to accelerate and accelerate?

probably not. we're probably more of a stable to decelerating economy. but i just don't see the avenue especially in the near term for recessionary conditions in any way, shape, or form. >> you point out industrials have had a nice run broadening out the market rally. do you think they have gotten over extended and would you lighten up on them? >> yes. i think they have. if you look at the valuations of industrials, there's a lot of them, especially in the cycle space trading at at least ten-year highs in valuation. now, does that mean they're going to collapse tomorrow? absolutely not. but what it does mean if you're an incremental buyer or holder today, you have to make sure that these companies are going to not only meet, but exceed their numbers going forward. in a decelerating economy, that's going to be difficult for them to do. so from our perspective right now, that just -- there seems to be a little bit of a dislocation there, the all-time high in valuations, usually are areas

where they think it's a cycle trough. we're not at a cycle trough at this point right now so i have a little bit of hesitation being a buyer of those stlails have worked really well over the past six months. >> that famous saying in baseball, hit them where they ain't. where are the ain'ts where i should be hitting? >> yeah. you know, one of the ain'ts that, you know, is starting to work here a little bit is we like the health care space outside of glp-1. one of the areas that's been hit positive glp-1 drugs is the diabetes market. we think that that's an attractive space to be playing in right now. we think there's both growth and relative value in those spaces. whether you're buying something growthy like a dexcom which still is growing over 25% organically in that market or whether that's an avid or medtronic more in the value space not growing as fast but very opportunistic in there. we think that's a space where, you know, you were talking about

hit them where they ain't, we think that's an area where people have shied away from because of the glp-1 dynamics, but we still think that's a very positive long-term secular market that's going to continue to grow for these companies and continue to expand in that area. >> all right. thank you very much. we appreciate your time today. >> thank you. >> jeremy bryant joining us today. >> coming up the fight against spam. google says it's doubling down on low-quality search results but might be a while before you see any improvements. we'll dig into the details in today's tech check. a conflicting forecast. the solar industry wrapped up a record year but solar companies are facing a different picture. we'll shed light on that topic when "power lunch" returns. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

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shares of google positive today but under performing on the year down almost 4% over concerns over threats to its core search business.

one executive is tampenning down those. hi, d. >> we got an update on the status and resill yensz of search that could make the bears think twice. it was alphabet's chief business officer philip schindler spoke at morgan stanley's tmt conference just down the street from us here in san francisco, and for all of those fears around chat boths eating google's lunch he said they've seen positive search query growth in the last 12 months and as they experiment with sge or search generative experience, that's like their chatbot in traditional search they're still running ads above and below the results. instead of this idea or fear that google is going to cannibalize their cash cow search ads they're incorporating gen ai products into the business. ha does that look like in the feature? schindler sees a world where there are gen ai based ads

integrated into generative ai answers. he believes google can create consumer and advertiser value over time making ads more like commercial experiences. they're thinking about it in a different way and the big advantage they have is distribution, right. it's been rolling out generative ai features to billions of users already, maybe more accurate to say hundreds of millions of users many who aren't looking for chat bots but may be getting familiar with them nonetheless. i don't know if you've noticed some of the features when you do google searches you have to opt in but it will give you a gen ai answer. have you noticed that? >> i haven't. it looks differently? >> sometimes it shows up as a box and tries to answer your question directly like it would in a chat bot. sometimes it's a button that says would you like to see a generative ai here. we have a video. look out for i guess this is kind of like the bull and bear case, right, is that you have to maybe be looking for it, but the

other case is that you're not looking for it but getting comfortable with this kind of search and may not know it. that's what it's about, right. the changing habits right now and whether google will be left behind. >> can i ask, everything that has gone on with these ai snafus we've been talking about with gemini and yesterday we were talking about some of the microsoft snafus, has that slowed any innovation in the rollouts with ai in other use cases for these companies specifically? >> well, i don't think it has slowed anything down, but in the case of google they wanted to do things boldly and responsibly, so they may have rushed gemini out earlier than they would have liked because they see what openai and chatgpt and all these things are doing, only to have to pause it, right. so in this space, i think you have to allow for a certain amount of mistakes along the way and they're not unique to google. we talked about copilot yesterday. i was at salesforce's trailblazer event yesterday talking to their head of ai and she said that it just -- things

like this, these snafus don't slow them down. they motivate her to continue to improve on it. i guess that's the message, is it's so early we're going to see a lot more of this. >> quick question, the genius of google, i think, most would agree, is how they have integrated advertising into the search product. how are they going to advertise -- integrate advertising into the ai product? >> tyler, you hit the nail on the head there, right. they've been able to integrate advertising and sometimes you don't know it's advertising. that's been to their benefit and some users don't like that at all. that's what philip schindler their chief business officer said they're doing with generative ai. he says they're providing that generative ai answer. and they're still advertising above and below it. not necessarily disrupting their business model. they're adding it in and critics

would say that's not enough and chatgpt has become a blip and they need to do more. >> thanks, d. further ahead, rivian unveiled a smaller suv dubbed the r2 and announced a cost-savings plan. we'll speak with the ceo r.j. scaringe when "power lunch" returns. rylee! from rylee's realty! hi! this listing sounds incredible. let's check it out. says here it gets plenty of light. and this must be the ocean view? of aruba? huh. this listing is misleading. well, when at&t says we give businesses get our best deal, on the iphone 15 pro made with titanium. we mean it. amazing. all my agents want it. says here...“inviting pool”. come on over! too inviting. only at&t gives businesses our best deals on any iphone. get iphone 15 pro on us. (♪♪) (♪♪) business can happen virtually anywhere.

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chair powell testifying on capitol hill second straight day for that that comes ahead of the jobs report tomorrow. let's see how the bond market is reacting with rick santelli in chicago. rick? >> yes. tyler, tomorrow early alert we're going to be paying close attention to the hours worked, the workweek. last month it was 34.1. that really popped out as extraordinarily low and that could affect productivity. as for chairman powell, he did have an effect on the market. let's start early. look at a chart of 10-year treasury yields and bounds in the european union and deals in the uk. at 8:15 eastern see the way they all went down and came up. that was the first big salvo in

ecb downgraded inflation and growth. the second was, and you see it mostly in short maturities like 2-year, around 11:25 eastern time, powell was making comments about how commercial real estate isn't exactly his worse case scenario. he thinks things could go better than worse case for big banks especially and talked about when he gets more confidence he feels he's close to lowering rates and pushed rates lower at 11:25. one month chart of 2s and 10s, we reversed and both maturities, especially long maturities today were near one month low yield closes. courtney, back to you. >> rick santelli, thank you very much. solar stocks are under pressure with the tan fund dropping 43% in the last year. the industry actually saw record growth in that same year 2023. pippa stevens is here to explain the divergence. >> you wouldn't necessarily think that based on the mixed earnings reports you've seen as well as lots of talk around the

impact of higher rates but in 2023 u.s. solar installations hit a record 234 gigawatts enough to power 9.5 million homes up 51% from 2022 as residential and commercial and utility scale posted record numbers during the first full year of the inflation reduction act, which co-author of the report said is, quote, super charging solar deployment. that said, some of 2023's growth was thanks to previously delayed projects coming online as well as a pull forward in california residential demand ahead of the key policy change and this year the industry is forecast to grow, but not at the same rate thanks to several uncertainties including, of course, the he election as well as interconnection delays, permitting challenges and higher interest rates. rates have hit the residential side hard which we started to see last year and that does line up with commentary we heard during earnings which is that

rezi is more challenged than the larger utility scale projects and you see it in the divergence of those stocks there. >> 61, 62%. pippa, thank you. let's goat kate rodgers for a cnbc news update. kate? >>. [ no audio ] >> we're going to go to break and try to get kate's audio fixed. coming up, we will speakwith rivian founder and ceo r.j. scaringe the company unveils its ow lchba i2..e "perun" ckn my name's cody archie. and i'm erica.

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welcome back to "power lunch" everybody. let's talk about shares of rivian losing 50% of their value this year but up 10% as the company unveils a new lower cost electric suv at a very important time for the company. our phil lebeau is in california with rivian's ceo for a first on cnbc. phil, take it away. >> tyler, thank you. scaringe, founder and ceo of rivian.

this is the r2. we'll talk about that but one of the pieces of news that has come out this was going to be built at your new plant in georgia. >> yeah. >> but you're pausing that, correct, that plant? explain what you're doing here? >> we're so excited about this vehicle we wanted to get it into market as fast as possible and we will be building these in our plant in georgia but launch them out of our facility in illinois. that gets us the ability to get it to market quicker and savings us over $2 billion in capital in the process of launching it. >> you are pausing the plant no the getting rid of the plant? >> georgia is incredibly important to us. the partnership we have with the state is outstanding and the most important thing is getting this vehicle in the market as fast as we can and leveraging what we have in illinois is enabling that. >> and in the process conserving some liquidity? >> yeah. what we said it savings us over $2.25 billion. >> when you look at building this in illinois, first half of '26 when you expect it to come out and you said you're

bringing it forward as much as possible. how much time will you save building it at your existing facility in illinois? >> we haven't said when in '246, but it's important we get into market because as you can see from this room there's a lot of, the crime around the product but important from a business point of view as we scale what this represents for us in really growing the number of investable customers we have. >> you're expecting to start at about 45,000 base price. things can change as you go through development. is that low enough for what the market is looking for right now? you know that everybody wants an ev even lower. they want it under 40,000. >> there's a few things to know. this vehicle in terms of its size and package and we think fits the market where you see the most popular segments and mid size suv beautiful, comfortable package on the inside, but it also qualifies for the federal tax credit so there's a $7,500 tax credit which means the end price to consumer starting price 37,500.

>> confident you can hold 45,000 over the next couple years given what's happened? >> every thing we do within the business is focused on driving costs on this and how it's manufactured and built, so that is the number one priority as we look at development of this vehicle. >> you had a surprise up your sleeve here with the r 3 and r 3 x. explain this. you don't have a date for when these will be manufactured but a crossover utility vehicle at a lower price point than the 45,000 expected for the r 2 right? >> r 2 represents not just a vehicle but a platform and on that platform we have a similar productr3 and r3 is a crossover, unique form factor but the price point will be lower and come out in sequence, sequenced after r2. >> and when you say that lower price point, what have you heard back from your customers in terms of you've got to come in lower? >> well, i think, you know, leveraging what we do on r2 that platform, but then really taking the vehicle making a little

smaller, allowing us to take costs out of the battery pack and take price down below that 45 that we're starting with in r2, that we think really opens up a large cross section of customers looking at everything from, you know, cars to crossovers to suvs to hatch backs so the r2 fits a broad spectrum of buyers. >> tyler has a question for you. go ahead. >> if i might, you cite the range as 300 miles. i'm curious how you calculate that range and will the driver in the real world really get anything close to 300 miles of range? my skepticism comes as an owner of an ev not one of yours, and i just don't believe that the cited mileage is what i experience. >> yeah. it's a great question. so when we cite the 300 miles we think of that as real world range. there's the epa standard which drives what's tested, but it's

really important from a customer expectation point of view for us for the vehicle to achieve that epa rate of range and we spend a lot of time and seen that with our products that the stated range matches what you see in the real world. but i think this is a big part of, you know, when we talk about being authentic with our customers, authentic with our owners this is what we focus on. >> you seem to acknowledge the possibility that there is a discrepancy between what the epa test and real world range is but i'm hearing you say in this case when you say 300 miles of range, on a charge, you're going to get 300 miles? >> yes. some vehicles certainly you see that discrepancy. with rivian, there's a lot of independent tests we've focussed to make sure we achieve the range that we talk about in terms of epa. >> r.j., you talked about the latest decision in terms of pausing in georgia, a savings of $2.25 billion, and i'm not expecting you to give guidance, as you have gone through a crushing six months how

comfortable are you with your liquidity right now? >> being able to launch r2 earlier and launch it with a lot less capital is really important for us to take the capital we have and take that through the launch of r2 and allows us to have more flexibility and control our destiny in that regard and not having to be subject to some of the volatility of the capital markets. >> you see what's happening in the ev market your shares are getting crushed almost all ev shares and ev company shares are getting rushed. what's your thought? >> i think ultimately what we can say here is the world will electrify. every car sold in the united states and for that matter in all markets will be electric. the question we can debate is when that happens, but key to that is getting great choices. customers need choices that are compelling and how we see r2 something that will take the success we've had with r1 translate that into a lower price point and smaller form factor. i've never been this excited as i am of r2. >> r.j. scaringe on a big day

here in laguna beach where they unveiled the r2 and r3, back to you. >> thank you very much. still ahead, the ceo of rivian just gave it an inside look at the brand's new rivian suv. what is wall street's take on this vehicle and company? we'll get a quick reaction from rbc's tom norian after this break. they're waiting for you. hey, do you have a second? they're all expecting more. more efficiency. more benefits. more growth. when you realize you can give your people everything, and more. thank you very much. [applause] ask, "now what?" here's what. you go with prudential to protect, empower and grow. with everything you need to deliver,

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welcome back to "power lunch." we just heard from rivian's ceo following the unveil of its smaller and more affordable suv. their rivian and releasing r3 and r3 x. let's get reaction from a top analyst. he's had a hold rating on the stock since he downgraded it from outperform last april. tom, what do you make of what you heard today? does anything makes you want to move that i guess your rating from either a sell to a buy or do you feel hold is appropriate after what we know now?

>> yeah. i think hold is appropriate given the uncertainty on the profitability of this product, but i do want to say the products this company creates are very impressive for the consumer. the question the investors have to know is, are these products really good for investors? so far, you know, rivian produces its cars at a loss, so -- that's at a higher price point, the r 1. the r2 at a lower price point being the question on a lot of folks' minds how will they be able to produce this car so compelling, 300 plus miles of range as we found out, profitably? there's uncertainty there. >> yeah. i mean, obviously, the hope i assume they would pick up in some volume, but in that interview, which i believe you heard, he was talking about the cost as our own phil lebeau was interviewing him and asking him about the price, and he says everything we do has cost in

mind. now that you know the price, i don't know, you've been able to update your model so quickly, but you know that it's $45,000, does that help at all with understanding how much closer they may be able to get to that profitability standard? >> this is largely the expected price. i have modelled in r2 in my model, but with profitability it's a question of how big is this battery, what are they paying for battery costs? we just don't know that. they've told us that the r1 will be break even on gross profit by the end of 2024. we have to see evidence of it. if they're able to achieve that that would be tremendous and that would give people more reasons to believe they can get that for r3 but until we see that evidence it's just difficult to get really constructive in our view. >> does rivian have to get this one right? >> yes, definitely. this r1, we saw what happened a

couple weeks ago when they gave production guidance for 2024 for the r1 and it was essentially flat and surprised a lot of folks. you saw what happened with the stock as a result. r2 is really where the volumes are supposed to come from. tesla did the same playbook, started with the s and x, expensive, low volume cars, created this brand and came out with the 3 and the y, right. those are high volume cars today that makes the profit center for tesla. here that's what rivian is hoping for that r2 and r3 become the profit center and build on the brand they've created and really get the volume and the scale needed for profitability. but also it will come down to demand and that's where we have some concerns about, especially given the competition we're seeing from jeep and ford and gm. tesla didn't have any of that competition. rivian's going to be coming out with these vehicles in a very competitive subset, also with an

ev slow down. >> so let me just -- you answered really what was going to be my next question that is are there lessons from tesla's experience that rivian could apply here and you just nailed it because where they started to get profitable is when they came into the market with lower priced items. the model y and the model 3. let's turn to the question of range. range is the high anxiety factor for most ev buyers and owners. 300 miles sufficient. what is the point where people, you believe, where people are going to go, i want an ev because i don't have to worry about the range issue anymore? >> yeah. great question. this is the number one issue that folks say is why the ev slowdown is happening with customer in the u.s. is range. 300 miles should be sufficient. with rivian they've proven when

they say the mileage range, it is actually. >> it's accurate? that's interesting. okay. >> yeah. the bigger issue is consumer demand for evs in general. that i think is something that needs to be kind of explored first. >> what about the r3 and r3x, a little bit more unexpected today. do you have any immediate reaction to that? >> yeah. i think we had heard this has been speculated in the press there's going to be a crossover, i guess it was a surprise it came out today, although i did read some things. it's something we were expecting them to come out with a crossover at some point. probably going to be very competitive product. i don't think that it's ever been the issue. these guys make beautiful products that are very compelling for consumers. consumers will get a great product probably but ultimately comes down to the question of profitability for rivian and also it's a competitive market

right now. they're going to have to bring that price to a level consumers will be willing to spend. >> thank you for your insights. >> you got it. >> still ahead, strong q4 results pushed kroger to a new 52-week high. questions remain around the grosser's pursuit of albertson's. a trader will tell us how he's playing this name and more, next.

nasdaq up more than 1 1/2%. >> with every passing day -- there is a note i just read saying chips are nearing a friendly. i will start with micron. micron getting love from two analysts. saying it's an unappreciated ai and a fishy area. you also have been doing and

people are building locally in their country. you can see the stock up is 4% on this news. let's talk about intel. there is rumors about a $3.5 million in government aid. you thought maybe intel would get that money and it has not been confirmed yet. intel not commenting on this. the reaction of this talk almost -- we keep talking about this, it might be exaggerated. we will end with in video.

mizuho thinks it could hit. estimates from analysts have come up. >> wow, chips, chips, chips. makes me hungry on power lunch. time for today's free stock lunch. first rod gomm's. scott, what is your take on this one? >> the company is less focused than that but expectations are relatively modest forward pe of just 30 but the reason to be worried here is because revenue expectations are for 30% year

over year. broad, has the most bullish option pricing worlds going on right now. enjoy the ide but don't get married to it. >> okay, fair enough. reporting better than expect earnings. merger uncertainties still linger with the albertsons deal or no deal. scott? >> i would buy this on a pullback. up 10% and i would buy on a pullback because of the business they are in. it's tough to step up and pay nine or 10% more closing price for a company like kroger. it is up 23% over the past month , another reason to wait for a pullback. pe is very reasonable, 12.3, much lower than target.

this has really gotten ahead of itself and the albertsons deal really seems to be in trouble. >> finally, costco, reporting results after the bell today. this is more of a tumor stable but has actually had a decent run. >> it had a wonderful run which is why it is time to sell. i remember when we were waiting for walmart to grow in its valuation. power lunch will be

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sports as well and we are proud to be partnering more seriously with clutch and rich paul and it is really a way to get the robin hood brand out there to a wider audience. >> i don't see the fit naturally between a brokerage platform or trading platform and a sports agency. >> i started to think of some of the famous athletes dealing with crypto friends. >> obviously robin hood was embroiled in controversy over mean trading stocks not long ago.

>> he lived his reality right. all right the dow and nasdaq moving much higher today. the s&p is up as well by 1%. thank you for watching power lunch. closing bell starts now. >> welcome to closing bell i am at mike's and totally in for -- mike santoli in for scott walker. if that weren't enough fed chair powell leaving expectations of summertime rate cuts or at least one intact. the rally is relatively broad today.