♪ good afternoon and welcome to "power lunch," everybody. i'm tyler mathisen. stocks rebounding from yesterday's late day selloff, following a stronger-than-expected jobs report. why are the markets liking a report that seems to give the feds cover to stay higher longer? we'll discuss. >> plus, we will be joined onset by don peebles. while many are worried about the commercial real estate market, he thinks that now is a great time to buy. first let's get a check of the markets. they are rebounding.

today's gains aren't enough to save the major averages from a losing week to start the second quarter, tyler. >> all righty. let's start with a jobs report from this morning. it was a whopper. u.s. employers hired 303,000 new workers this month. a blow-outcome paired to just 200,000. the unemployment rate down to 3.8% as expected. wages rose in line, however, with expectations. what does all this say about the state of the la boar market and the overall health of the economy. let's ask seth, former acting u.s. secretary of labor under president obama. good afternoon. welcome. good to have you with us, seth. >> thanks, tyler. good to be with you. >> does this put a stake in the heart of those that expect a recession over the next 12 to 18 months. >> well, it doesn't put a stake in the heart of the people, but it definitely kills the argument that a recession is coming. there is absolutely no indication of a recession. instead, what we can expect is

what we've had, which is solid, stable growth in the job market, solid stable growth in the economy as a whole, steadily rising wages, which will outstrip inflation, so workers will be better off, have more money in their pockets to buy things for their families. it is a very strong economy continuing to do well. that's the message of today. >> unemployment rate below 4% for 24 consecutive months. that's a long time. why? why do you think that that perception of a good economy has not filtered through to the general population? and why, oh, by the way, doesn't president biden get more credit for that? >> i think he's beginning to get more credit for it. but, you know, inflation really took a bite out of families paychecks. we're beginning to see gas prices creep up a little bit. i think that is having a meaningful effect.

folks would like to see prices come down. that's one of the reasons why you hear the president talking about it so much. >> right. and on that note, seth, maybe these job matters don't matter all that much because you also have the immigration factor. it is really inflation. we will get cpi next week. how important is that when it comes to this broader picture, the rate trajectory cut to the feds. >> i think it is all important of what the right thing to do is. we have seen inflation come down fairly steadily. inflation is about 50 basis points above the fed target. we're seeing steady growth, which i said the job market is doing extremely well. the underlying economy is strong. so i think the wrestling match at the fed right now is, do we need to cut interest rates to help the economy to grow more, or are we okay with a steady course? i would like to see them cut rates by 25 basis points just to send the signal that inflation is not a concern in the economy anymore. instead, what we want to do is

focus on continuing this solid growth. >> you have wage growth going up at a little more, as i saw it, a little more than 4%. you have inflation a little below that. so people are actually -- whether they feel it or not, they're actually having real wage gains. albeit, small ones. >> that's exactly right. and it takes a little time for that to kick in. remember, it wasn't that long ago that we were experiencing much higher inflation, and that really bites. we're also feeling the after effects of a pandemic recession. there is a sense of instability among working people in our country. they are also frustrated that corporate profits are as high as they are and their wages are not rising commensurately. they're watching them do fantastically well in this economy. they would like to have a fair share of that. >> you said the fed is confident on inflation, but this week has that thrown a little bit of cold

water. you mentioned gas prices yourself. how confident should we be about that trajectory? >> you know, i don't think we see any meaningful shocks that knock us off this path we are on. gas prices are always a concern and certainly having two wars going on, significant wars going on in the world is a significant concern. but as a general matter, what we have seen is a lot of stability, a lot of predictability. those are the kinds of conditions that allow the fed to make a policy choice signaling to the economy we think things are going well. we are no longer worried about inflation being a big problem. instead, what we're worried about is some slowing of growth. although, i don't think we see a meaningful indication of that. gdp slowed in the first quarter. our early indications are compared with the fourth quarter. so a little bit of juice, just a little bit from the fed, i think would help the economy along and send a powerful signal not just

to the markets but to working people. >> construction employment higher, that's interesting in this economy, number one. number two, hospitality, leisure employment back to pre-pandemic levels. that's a good sign. >> that's an extremely good sign. that was a sector and agroup of workers who just got battered by the pandemic recession. health care did extremely well last month and always does well. it seems to be, you know, absolutely immune to anything that goes on in the economy. the construction number, i think, is extremely important because i think that could be the beginning of the effects of these big public investments that were passed by congress at president biden's urging. you know, the bipartisan infrastructure law, the inflation reduction act, these chips and sciences act. if those bills are beginning to bite, if projects are beginning,

if shovels are going into the ground, if concrete is being poured, we will continue to see that number not just grow but grow above average as it did in march. that would be extremely good for the economy because those are good quality middle class union jobs that help to drive the economy and a lot of communities in our country. >> seth harris, we thank you for your insight and your time today. have a great weekend. thank you. >> thanks a lot. pivoting to the markets, the major averages recovering from thursday's selloff with the dow and nasdaq each trading about 1% higher today. but all three indexes are still on track for weekly losses, which is on pace to end the week down nearly 3%. joining us onset is the cio of pence capital management. thanks for being with us, in person as well. >> glad to be here. >> what's moving markets? there were so many fed speakers this week, so the focus on the rate cut trajectory. at the same time, we are seeing

commodities tick higher. we have seen gold, again, at record highs. what is that in your opinion? >> it is a combination of a bunch of things and everybody is dancing on the head of the fed's pin. we have to movement to that moment or we're beginning to movement to the moment where no news is good news. yesterday you had this, okay, wait, maybe we had to move the rate cuts and, you know, information and things like that are coming in and, you know, where is this going to -- june? july? now what we're seeing is on this jobs number is that the economy is good and it's growing and it's continuing to do so. for a long time good news was good news. now we're recovering today. yes, we have some geopolitical risk that will affect oil prices. you will see some tick up north of 80 again. that will push that inflation number a little bit. but all of these things will just move this fed period out,

and we will, again, get to this point. earnings will come in records. i think we will see record earnings. that's good for companies and good for products. >> that's what i was going to ask you. basically, the stock market is discounting future earnings. what do you see for the rest of this year? >> what happened is everybody lowered expectations. at first, the beginning of the year, they thought we would have 7% earnings growth. >> now it's coming down. >> now it's coming down. everybody will beat it. the majority of it will be major earnings beats. we will have a good first quarter. a number of consecutive quarters where you have 70% or 80% of the companies beating on earnings expectations. now that the cfos now know the terminal interest will not go higher than 5.5%, you will see expansion of these companies because companies can plan now. we will see this broadening out of the 393, the rally, the rest of the market rally is the way i would look at it. >> the 493. >> exactly. >> that's not an area code.

>> the x-max 7. max 7 will still do fine. but what you will see is this broadening out of the outperformance of the market. personings expectations. cfos can now predict their margins. if we get a lower interest rate coming in at the back of the year, that will provide market expansion. >> so what do you do with the accounts for the rest of the year. meta is up 8% this year alone. when we say it is not the mag-7, it is still the fab four or some of these individual names. >> i think what happens here, if you are an asset allocator and you take a good look at your portfolio, you have done very well with the fab four, and you probably reallocate a little bit to small caps, industrials, companies that make things because, i think, that they will begin to see, as i said, the 493 of the expansion of earnings beats first quarter, second

quarter, third quarter of this year. i think you will find some good opportunities for performance in that part of the market. >> interesting. what about bonds and particularly munis? >> in terms of the muni market, we tend to like that. we think there are good opportunities there. but i think the bond market has to be careful. everyone who is expecting going into this year, yeah, we're going to have sixrate cuts massively disappointed. we think rates will stay very elevated in terms of higher for longer. so if you're expecting to make money on a falling interest rate market, that's not where to be. but if you are expecting to, you know, accrue income and for a lot of retirees they want the tax benefits and munis, then that's a good place to be. we're still fairly short. and that's going to be good for people. now bonds are back. we had that conversation a couple of months ago. and now that the muni market is there, you are going to see

people -- the risk free rates of return are higher. the muni market is higher. it is a good place for how can i get some tax free income? they will continue to be supported in that market. >> thank you very much for being with us. >> we will call you mr. 493 like pitbull is mr. 495. >> i will have to get that in the lining of a jacket. >> 496 if it's gone from 7 to 4. >> it's a math problem. >> i like the sound of 493. >> but the important thing is there is a whole lot of companies out there that are really poised to do welcoming in. >> have a good weekend. >> thank you very much. bond deals jumping after this morning's job number. let's get to rick santelli in chicago for more. >> well, thank you. i have a special guest today, professor mulligan, previous chair to the council of economic

under president trump. we have what many are considering a very good jobs report. what are your thoughts on the jobs report? >> there was some interesting things there. i noticed the job gains are entirely in the part-time category. >> wow. now, i have heard many discuss that. how do you look at that? is there any statistical issues that are affected by that? >> well, another thing i always look at is exemployment per person. we're not reaching the levels we were in 2019. every month of 2019 we had more employment per person than we do now. >> wow, this's very impressive when you think about it. i like that statistic. but lately immigration seems to be that special sauce. for the last couple years, professor, it seems as if the population growth couldn't explain the jobs we're creating. we received an aha moment that it's immigration. is immigration positively

affecting it? >> it makes it hard to understand the statistics. the per person number, we can understand the people we know half of them are working, half of them aren't. but to understand the 160 million job number, you need to know how many people are in america, and that's something we're having trouble measuring as statistician. >> that's true. many people will be looking at the cost-benefit analysis of immigration. we don't want to get into the sticky issues. but mgovernors and ma yours hav issues of the expense of this. the big positives are that it's helping alleviate some of the stress in the labor market. but you are not convinced. >> right. i see a recession at the individual level. that people are less likely to be working than they were before. >> okay. the more that statistic goes in the current direction, in other words, the less employment we have per person, the more that would be a recession nar indicator? >> yes. almost the definition of recession. less work is a recession. >> now, is there anything with the fed that we should garner

from this report in terms of the time line for potential easing? do you see anything more clearly? >> well, if they saw recession elements of our economy, they would be probably be willing to keep rates lower, increase them less. >> okay. just so we understand this, because this is something sort of new to me, employment per person has been going down, even though we see that the immigration is a positive for jobs. but since we can't quantify the number of people, there could be an aha moment in the other direction? >> yes. until we get this measurement straight, we will not be 100% sure how things are working. >> i got you. professor casey mulligan, it is always interesting talking to you. i like when i learn something new. tyler, back to you. we have a news alert now on meta. >> hey there, tyler. meta, the important company of facebook, just filed this motion for summary judgment just been the past couple of minutes.

this is in the long-running antitrust case about its acquisition years ago of instagram and whatsapp. meta is arguing that this case ultimately should be dismissed. what meta says is the ftc's entire case is two acquisitions in 2012 and 2014. both of which the ftc reviewed and carefully cleared at the time. meta also says after extensive discovery, it is apparent that the ftc cannot prove any of the required elements of its claim. this first ever attempts to revisit acquisitions reviewed and cleared by the ftc a decade ago threatens beneficial competition and is unsupported. you can imagine here, tyler, that the ftc will not agree with this. just because you file a motion for summary judgment doesn't mean you will necessarily get it. but meta here is arguing this case should be over and done

with. we will wait to see what the ftc has to say about this as well. >> do we know anything about the situation where the ftc or another body has seemingly approved a merger, only to have that merger then called into question years later? >> yeah, that's a good question. i don't know the history of other bodies, but what meta is arguing here is this the first ever case where that's happened in terms of the ftc itself. now, this case was brought in 2020. remember, the actual transactions were in '12 and '14, so this was years after the fact, once the biden administration came in with a much more aggressive antitrust position than previous administrations had. it was initially dismissed back in 2021. it was refiled in august of '21. it survived an initial meta motion to dismiss back in 2022. be here we are in 2024, and the case is still unresolved and ticking along. >> and that's the key, still

unresolved. you are also starting to see big tech become more bold, right? we had that report yesterday of google potentially looking at a deal to pick up hub spot. that is something that i couldn't imagine a year ago when they were under so much pressure. but the point is they have been under pressure for so long and the strategy from regulators has been mistifying. >> that's interesting because when you talk to biden administration antitrust regulators, as i have about this, they feel like they have changed the calculus in the c suit. they feel like corporate executives are being much more cautious when it comes to acquisitions and thinking through the antitrust implications and not bringing as many details to the table. what you're saying is they're actually embolden. so somebody doesn't understand the party here. >> cautious is a nice word to put it. creative is a word i might use.

look at what microsoft has been able to do and the comments about the partnership with open ai being around them, above them, below them. they're not doing all load acquisitions, but they found other ways to get deals past. i do think that google yesterday is an interesting indication of how they feel about this and maybe the fact that the regulators still haven't had this big win. but this could also have important implications because we're talking more and more about the european regulators looking at breaking up businesses, and that relates to google's ad tech. >> i know we're in an election year here, but i don't think the biden administration antitrust folks see themselves as done for the year yet. i would watch that ai space that you are talking about and also health care as possible areas where you might see more antitrust activity for the biden administration before the end of the biden first term. >> thank you very much. coming up, folks, a power player weighing in on the rks,he economy, jobs, more commercial real estate. we'll talk about real estate

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oil prices rising once again today. 20% so far this year. >> big week, of course. yesterday we saw it surge above 90. that, of course, came as the market is waiting to see if and when what iran's response is to the attack on their embassy in damascus and what that means for the oil market and whether it will impact flows. dennis told me it will impact it in some way, even if just means more attacks in the red sea. that will add to the price. we did see wti cross into a golden cross today when the 50 day rises above the 200-day moving average. that is typically a bullish

indicator. the last time this happened was back at the end of 2019 when both of them were in an uptrend. however, we both know what happened early in 2020. in that instance, it wasn't a bullish indicator for oil. right now there is momentum behind it. the long burst and short positioni ing is above is two a five-year high. gasoline futures is outpacing the move in oil so far this year. you see that? you see on the orange line when it ticked up at the start of march, that is when ukraine started increasing their attacks against russian oil refining infrastructure. they think 670 barrels a day is offline. >> blue line,red line or orange line gas? >> yes. you see what happened at the start of march. that's when the market said, oh, no, if russia is refining less, they will be importing more

products. this isn't necessarily bullish for oil, though, because if demand from russia's refinery drops, they might be exporting more. bullish for products remains to be seen for oil itself. prices are up 22 cents in the last month, higher than they were last year. >> summer driving season. >> exactly. americans all get behind gas prices. even though it is a smaller share of our wallet than it was, say, a decade ago. it is the $3.50 and the $4. >> it is what you notice every an. . thks coming up, is samsung doubling down on texas as the u.s. chip hub? details in today's tech check. we'll be right back. webcasts, articles, courses, and more - all crafted just for traders. and with guided learning paths stacked with content curated to fit your unique goals, you can spend less time searching and more time learning. trade brilliantly with schwab.

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prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. welcome back. time for a quick power check. on the positive side, newmont climbing for a fourth straight day. most recently breaking above 2,300. on the negative side, enphase energy cutting its price target. that's your power check. each of the indexes up about a

percent. let's get a cnbc news update. >> the biden administration will soon roll out a new student loan proposal that could forgive debt for as many as 10 million americans. the plan is not as sweeping as the first debt relief strategy that the supreme court ultimately blocked according to "the wall street journal." the president is expected to provide details in a speech on monday. 500 manhattan residents were reportedly sent notices to appear as jurors in donald trump's criminal trial. it could take weeks to reduce the pool to 12 people. trump is accused of falsifying business records after allegedly issuing hush money payments to stormy daniels days before the 2016 election. the trial is supposed to begin april 15th. and italian police say exploited workers in milan produce d bags which employed unauthorized chinese subc

subcontractors that hired workers under the table. they ignored health and safety rules regarding breaks and days off. tyler, back over to you. >> kate, thank you vermu. y ch zoning in on areas of strength around the country. we will speak to don peebles when "power lunch" returns. we'll be right back.

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welcome back to "power lunch." the hits keep oncoming for the battered commercial real estate. this comes amid some recent chatter about the fed possibly delaying interest rate cuts, which would have an impact on the sector, to put it mildly. here on set to discuss this with us is don peebles. always good to have you in the house, don. >> good to be here. >> if i'm reading you right, you think that some of the most opportune markets are among the most challenged markets right now. new york, san francisco, among others, while some of the hotter markets, dallas, fort worth,

miami and others maybe you stay away from. am i reading you right? >> sort of. you are right in terms of opportunist. we're an opportunistic company. so we look to develop when markets are constrained. we look to buy when there is tremendous value. what we're seeing here in the commercial office space is essentially once in a generation. >> opportunities to buy. >> opportunities to buy. nothing like this has happened since the early 1990s, when we had the banking crises that resulted in almost 900 banks being closed in less than three years. >> and you were able to pick up properties in phoenix, dallas. that's where a lot of the banks problem was. >> and washington, d.c. as well. we were buying buildings at 20 cents on the dollar. that was the foundation that propelled our company to be able to go and make acquisitions and develop in other parts of the country. >> let me zoom out before we zoom back in before i might ask

one more question. that is this. at the top of our broadcast today, we had a guest, former acting u.s. labor secretary who said this morning's job numbers put a stake in the heart of the recession argument. the economy is healthy. it is growing. income is up. inflation remains at, you know, maybe -- it is not at bay yet, but it's been somewhat tamed. and he sees it that way. you seem not to see it that way. >> your second guess who rick interviewed in chicago, he thought better. i mean, i thought initially i was listening to one of the biden's campaign managers. >> well, he did that. he did serve in the obama administration. >> i know. >> the apple doesn't fall far, as they say. >> look, many of the jobs are part-time. the jobs he's talking about, the union jobs are skilled jobs. and the construction industry already has challenges of

workforce because there is so much demand. there's been a demand for a while. that's been driven by commercial real estate activities, not infrastructure investment and it's been in areas that are business friendly. >> though, he maintained the infrastructure investments would fuel growth in good, quote, middle class jobs. >> if the government could actually deploy the capital quickly enough. unfortunately, it goes from the feds to the states to the cities. and that takes a while, unfortunately. it's a very inefficient process. the other thing is that these statistics don't register the cost of capital. the fact that it costs 2.5 to 3 times for an american to buy a home today, the fact that rent in miami, for example, are up over 33% since 2020, those kinds of things, the cost of housing and the cost of capital, the fact that americans have record credit card debt right now, those kinds of things, that's

the real killer in terms of inflation for the average american, or to buy a car. so i think that we are in an environment where there is a lot of risk. there is some instability. and i think commercial real estate, which has been a big employer, big job generator will not be able to do it now. think about new york, san francisco and other places where real estate development created a lot of economic opportunity. >> right. but you are sort of net optimistic, right? you are finding opportunity in some of these beaten-down markets. how strong a stomach do you need to have or how strong a sideline do you need to have? >> look, washington, d.c., real estate values are down 60% to 70% for commercial office buildings. los angeles down 70% or more. san francisco was down 60%, 70%. those are global cities that will come back at some point in time. and, so, you have to have the

appetite to buy, understand how to stabilize the assets based on the current income potential. and then wait. >> you don't think there is something structural that has changed in a place like san francisco? last time you were on, we talked about this. that's where i live most of the time. and, you know, the remote or hybrid working environment has persisted. that has changed. when you say it will come back, will it come back to pre-pandemic levels or what are you expecting? >> one, i think inventory and supply. if we talk about commercial office space, for example. inventory and supply will decline. many buildings will get converted or repositioned or demolished. and, so, if the market will adjust to a form of hybrid work workforce, i do not think, if you look at what's happening in new york, for example, hybrid workforce is there, but it's not remote working four days a week. it is down to two or one. >> like night or day when i'm here in new york and the energy

on the streets and even, you know, the department small fronts and everything. and i'm sure you saw that the macy's in san francisco is going to close down. is that at odds with that recovery that you are seeing? >> no. i think, look, these cities have some real issues. san francisco's issue is quality of life and public safety. that is the top issue that affects them. new york city, the perception of it being unsafe, which i don't think it is as unsafe as it's perceived to be. the quality of life is diminishing, those are what the headwinds are. ultimately, you can -- you are buying an office building or a piece of real estate based on its potential cash flow. if you can buy office buildings today having 50% utilization 20%, 30% vacancies and they still make economic sense, you should buy them. >> what about l.a.? >> i think fundamentally the issue again with l.a., it's not necessarily hybrid working.

it's the fundamentals. it's unsafe. they have out-of-control homeless problem. it is absurdly expensiexpensive. to run a business, small, medium or large there. it is an anti-business environment. then it has massive congestion. on top of all of that, it's an absurdly expensive place to live or have a business. and, so, those things make it very difficult for a place like that to recover. but ultimately, the city either declines, you know, permanently or it recovers. and i believe they're on the way to recovery. they got a new mayor. she's trying real hard. she understands and has acknowledged the problem. but she has a city council that's very difficult to work with. >> you say or my notes say you say the fed miscalculated rising interest rates and the economy is in much worse shape than predicted. but what do the facts say here?

the economy has been growing. inflation has been coming down. we cited the jobs numbers earlier today. they are, by any measure, pretty good. we have been under 4% unemployment for 27-some quarters or something like that. what do the numbers tell you? i sense you are speaking from the gut here that the economy is worse than anybody predicted. >> that's how many people feel. >> and that the fed, in raising interest rates, has no idea how much it damaged the economy. but the economy has been growing for the last year and a half. >> i mean, it's gut. it's experience and it's numbers. it is just a delayed response. i mean, look, new york city today, this morning had an earthquake. and it was a tremor. it kind of shook things up, and then there will be an aftershock probably and so forth. >> gets your attention, though. >> what people don't understand is the largest earthquake on record wasn't in california. it was in new york. in terms of the u.s., the largest earthquake. but what the fed didn't calculate or didn't consider

sufficiently is the ripple effect. it will take a moment. but if the banks we're seeing stressed in regional and local banks. we've had a couple failures. we've got -- we talked to regional banks because we're very activein the real estate space. we talk to local and regional banks. the relationship to banks we've had in many cities they're not making more loans because they had to deal with a massive amount of problems that they haven't acknowledged yet because they have been kicking the can down the road. there is over a trillion dollars of commercial real estate loans that will mature this year. 80% of them are held by those banks. those banks start failing, you will have major issues and major impact on the economy. the fact that it's costing americans two and a half times or three times the cost to borrow to get a home or to buy a car, those will -- the ripple effect of that is coming. and, so, we just haven't gotten there yet.

we're seeing the commercial real estate market to where no -- the buildings that aren't trading are trading at 30 cents on the dollar. >> if you had a magic wand and there were three things you could do to fix what you see, what would those things be? >> i would lower rates down. >> immediately? >> immediately and fast. that would be the first thing i would do. the second thing i would do is i would have -- i would impose certain standards to cities and states before they got anymore federal money forstimulus activities. that would be they've got to start cleaning up their cities in terms of public safety and quality of life because, otherwise, you're wasting the money. you give -- if you give los angeles, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure and so on, it is money being wasted because it's not going to be deployed properly and still people are not going to want to come there. those would be the first two things. and then the other one is i

would change the tax code. i think the tax code has to be changed to reward production and job generation activities. i talked about this for years. so i do a real estate deal, a $500 million project, create a couple thousand jobs, put in a new piece of property on the tax rolls, create economic activity. we do that and we sell out condos. then when we sell out condos, we're paying 39% to the federal government. the private equity fund is a limited partner. they pay a capital gains rate of 22%. >> yeah. >> so their reward -- >> that seems unfair to you. >> it does. >> or if they go out and buy a property, make it more efficient, cut costs and expenses, then -- and then sell it a year later, they get a capital gains tax. that's just not fair. i think we have to look at the tax code, not about this system, about people not paying their fair share. but to incentivize, use it as a tool to incentivize.

part of that would be also offering major tax incentives and tax breaks like what was done in the early '90s during the -- for the enterprise zones for investors and developers who are going to convert these office buildings and put them back into use. there should be a reward for that. so if we use a tax code to incentivize investment in economic activity, it turns things around. >> tom, thank you so much. fascinating conversation. really enjoyed it. still ahead, everything is bigger in texas. samsung doubling down in a new chips super center in the lone star state. we'll get the details when "power lunch" returns. >> crypto watch is sponsored by grayscale.

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welcome back to "power lunch," samsung the latest company to make a big investment in chip manufacturing here in the united states. according to "the wall street journal," it plans to double its total cement kruk tor investment

in texas to $44 seems to be good news for the biden administration, which is spending a lot of energy and money to revitalize chip production. intel receiving government funds as part of the act. but intel stocks fell when it reported its founder unit lost $7 billion last year. intel is an american company. samsung is a south korean company. this is now an issue of national security, right? chips are going to be the most important things. so you need to manufacture them here. and you can't just manufacture them all in asia, but it does raise the question, intel has to come out of nowhere and build a foundry business. samsung has a lot of experience. >> isn't tsmc building in the united states? >> yes, and samsung. so it raises the question, do you need intel? >> yes. >> how secure do you need it to

be? >> yeah. do you need it to be an american-owned company. >> and highlight it is challenges for intel because they're starting this foundry business from scratch. it is billions and billions of dollars, years of r&d. >> coming up, dividend darlings. >> coming up, dividend darlings. safe and sadtey if volatilit morikawa on 18. he is really boxed in here. -not a good spot. off the comcast business van. into the vending area. oh, not the fries! y where's the ball? -anybody see it? oh wait, there it is! -back into play and... aw no, it's in the water. wait a minute... -alligator. are you kidding me? you got to be kidding me. rolling towards the cup, and it's in the hole! what an impossible shot brought to you by comcast business.

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time today today's three-stock lunch. today we look at so-called dividend aristocrat. pro cnbc looked for those that raised their payments in each of the past 25 years. here with our trades is tina sanchez, also a cnbc contributor. up first, geno, welcome. chevron, oil stock, made the list with a 4.1 dividend yield. shares up 7% so far this year. your trade on chevron. >> so, this is a buy for us. we own this in our dividend growth strategy, but not just because of the dividend growth. you know, you look at what's happening right now and oil prices are rising for the sad

part that we have a lot of geopolitical tension. that will probably keel oil prices high. inevitably you see more drilling and more m&a activity in chevron as part of that. chevron has taken a position off the coast of guyana, one of the largest oil discoveries in the last, you know, in the last decade. and, you know, we think this is going to propel chevron. >> gina up next, coca-cola, the soft drink maker offers 2.3% dividend yield and price targets call for more than 10% upside. what's your take on this one? >> this is also a buy for us. again, this is part of our dividend growth strategy. also if you look at the stock, the stock market itself has become more defensive. you know, the rally that started as a growth rally became a value rally last month. you have lots of difference of names starting to crop up. this is a stock that has grown its earnings despite margin pressures because of inflation. they've managed to prove they can make their margin. and their revenues are

continuing to rise. they're putting all -- everything forward that would make this a good defensive holding. >> coca-cola and now what could be more american than mcdonald's, the fast food chain offers a 2.4 dividend yield. stock down 9% this year. what's your trade on mcdonald's? >> actually, we also own mcdonald's. this is a buy for us. although the one-year chart in mcdonald's is starting to resemble the golden arches, which is not a great setup. so, if you are an investor, you know, what we're seeing right now is the response of the stock price responding to cfo comments saying that, you know, lower income households are starting to eat more at home rather than go out. that said, i think that's a short-term phenomenon. i do think that, you know, grocery store inflation is down. as we go into a more defensive market and potentially possibly a more defensive economy, mcdonald's should do just ine. >> thank you. have a great weekend.

for more on dividend aristocrats, be sure to visit cnbc.com/pro. we'll be right back.

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so, no matter what, i'm running this kitchen. (vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon. just a minute left in the show. openai says it is seeing tremendous growth of chatgpt called enterprise claiming it's reached more than 6700,000 paying customers versus having just 150 back in january. the firm's coo says 2024 is going to be the year of adoption for a.i., which is what pretty much anyone will tell you. >> this is a subscription. this is -- you pay for this. >> yeah. and enterprise uses. chatgpt, enterprise facing but you can take the apis and tailor certain aspects of generative a.i. for your company, your data. >> wouldn't be a day without story on tesla. reportedly scrapping a lower priced ev amid rising

competition from china. sources say tesla will continue developing robo taxis instead. tesla has not officially commented on that reuters report. ceo elon musk wrote on his x platform, quote, reuters is lying. >> there's that. >> there you go. thanks for watching "power lunch." >> "closing bell" starts right now. welcome to "closing bell." i'm scott wapner live from post 9. this make or break hour begins with the bounceback as major averages had erased most of thursday's decline. we're still positive. we'll track it over the final stretch. that after the jobs report came in hotter than expected. interest rates on the rise a bit. we'll ask our experts over the final stretch what it means for this rally going forward. that includes the wharton professor jeremy siegel. he'll join me momentarily. in the meantime, your scorecard with 60 minutes to go, it