"squawk box" begins right now. good morning. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. i'm kind of a life -- it's 6:00. my aura ring. we need to get the score. we should get a sponsor. >> 85? >> i think it is 80. that's not bad for me. you want 85 or above. i get a crown if i get 85. >> it sounds like college. >> i'm andrew ross sorkin. that's joe kernen. becky is out today. we have a lot going on. u.s. equities today. 42 points higher. nasdaq is up 31.

s&p 500 up 3.5. all of this coming after the major indices closed at record highs. dow up 55. the nasdaq and s&p gaining 1%. treasury yields with the ten-year yield at 4.33%. that was fast. let's look at the meme stocks. we'll see. it could come roaring back. gamestop now down six. it was more than double that. amc is above the recent lows. gamestop and amc fell during yesterday's session. amc, as it has in the past, took advantage of the rally. announcing a debt for equity stock. it completed a stock sale on

monday. there's the weekly chart. there is contraction and time -- you think that is a meme stock craze lasts four days? the last one lasted and went much higher. >> much higher levels. people said gamestop was much harder to short. >> right. it could be a weak phenomenon? four or five weeks? >> yeah. >> it went into the hundreds, didn't it? people really wanted it to happen. >> they wanted it to happen. it would be hard to keep any of these things going. >> do you think we're going to see a meme from here to back like this and i'm not watching

anymore? >> i think we need a t-shirt of you doing that. >> i'm a performance artist. most people sit like this. sit up straight and never move or anything else. i'm a performance artist. >> i know you are. we finally learned, this performance artist, warren buffett and berkshire hathaway requested to keep secret in the two s.e.c. filings as it an amassed a position. 26 million shares of chubb for a stake of $6.7 billion. the ninth biggest holding for berkshire hathaway as of the end of march. insurance ace limited acquired chubb in 2017 for $29.5 billion. a combined company adopted the chubb name.

evan greenberg is the ceo. it's a remarkable company. >> i had it for a while like a blanket liability. you know why you need it? if you have any money at all and you have a german shepherd, you need it. if it happens, they will try to get everything that you have. i have two now. i think they would not do it anymore. >> now warren won't do it. >> he's risk adverse. he want good credit risks. parachute? i forget what it's called. it covers whatever you built up in your life. if someone -- you could slip on your walk or something. >> this is a demonstration of how hard it is to find value. >> i was looking for something more exciting. >> that's the hard part. very hard to find value. >> yup. it was a long wait to find out

what it was. it's chubb. i like chubb. it is exciting in the way it's run. shares of cisco higher. reporting 88 cents a share. beating 82 cents. cisco said the decline in revenue was the result of clients taking time to set up the equipment they received in recent quarters. cisco offered similar comments in previous quarters. cisco is approaching the end of the years long supply chain challenges. this is all deja vu because i talked about this last night on that groundbreaking show "fast money." we talked all about cisco. i know you. you set the dvr or were you watching live?

>> i stopped everything we were doing. i had the family sit down on the couch. >> i hook up a polygraph to you right now and it is going off the charts. >> off the charts. >> do we have a ten-year chart? something going back to 2018 for cisco? this has been completely dead money. you can get back to a point in 2018 where it was trading at 50. it's been tough. they are trying to work off the post-pandemic supply chain issues. i also mentioned, do you remember 200 billion market cap? it was 600 when ge was 500 or 600. >> back in the day. cisco. you remember the flip camera? >> like austin powers? >> the flip camera. i think that was the high. when cisco decided to get in the

consumer business and decide to make cameras. >> it is better with the fancy servers. they never had the color i wanted. i wanted that in a pale blue. they gave me a look that i get from you a lot. the person we were interviewing. what is this fool talking about? >> talk about looks. a lot of looks. >> does you see what it took to get a 13-second take? he had eight cuts. did you see the jumps? >> i did not. let me tell the audience. president biden and former president trump will give looks because they scheduled two debates. one to air on cnn on june 27th. one to air on abc on september 10th. you can mark those dates on your calendar. both held without the involvement of the non-partisan commission on the presidential

debates. the biden campaign calling the commission out of step with the changes in the structure of the elections and interests of voters. trump's campaign called for two additional debates. he is looking for ones in july and august. later this hour, we will talk about the risk/reward opportunities with alex thompson. i feel like this is a cage match. >> there were a lot of conditions. trump was going to say yes no matter what. i think that's -- i don't know. i might have had counter conditions. mics get turned off when the other candidate is answering. no studio audience. cnn, say what you will, but we will see. i don't think how long the debate is and they may get past talking about january 6th. i'm not sure they will talk about policies or the border. jake tapper and dana bash.

with trump, i think he's going in eyes wide open. what am i saying? >> what are you trying to say? you think it will be hard for trump? hard debate for trump? >> i think he would accept anything just to get biden off script so people can get a look at that. if you had to go to a friendly place for biden, i would do cnn seven days a week for biden. >> i don't know. i think it will be very, very tough for biden. >> you do? >> i think it will be very challenging. i think under all circumstances, it will be challenging. >> jake tapper -- >> i don't believe that. i think dana and jake will do a great job with it. i don't criticize the questioners. >> i saw clips where trump was

buying people pizzas or something. cnn happened to be in that for five seconds. tapper almost had a heart attack. this is turning into and immediately dumped out. that place is crazy. >> i have great admiration for jake and dana. i do. >> he can't do anything for you. >> i will not throw stones. i really like bbret baier. >> what about sean hannity? >> i don't agree with him, but he is very good about what he is trying to do. let's talk about netflix. >> we can do it after the break. netflix is searching a deal to stream nfl games it year. the company revealed subscriber numbers and announced plans to launch its own advertising

platform. later, walmart is set to report and the instant market reaction. "squawk box" will be right back. >> announcer: this cnbc program is sponsored by baird. visit bairddifference.com. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools, and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. e*trade from morgan stanley ♪(voya)♪ there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. voya provides tools that help you make the right investment and benefit choices. so you can reach today's financial goals and look forward to a more confident future. voya, well planned, well invested, well protected.

welcome back to "squawk box." deere shares are falling. $8.53 a share.

better than $7.88. cutting the profit forecast for the full year. the stock is off 5%. netflix says it the cheaper ad supported plan at 40 million users and struck a deal for two nfl games. let's bring in mark maheney of evercore. it has taken years to see what streaming will look like. i have been struck by the new bundles. it's like what's old is new. i feel deja vu all over again. >> what is interesting about the deal is what it reflects. netflix is now big enough to economically afford to carry nfl football games. they have 270 million paid subs.

for them, the cost of the nfl christmas games is the cost of a medium-sized movie for them. it is in their $17 billion content budget for this year. now they have 40 million viewers. they had 5 million last year. my guess is close to 80 million. they are doing this globally. that is anything they offer is the global reach. a lot of people enjoy nfl that don't live in the u.s. netflix can give those viewers an audience. >> they have someone that can bargain for which games and matches? i would not want a lot of crappy match ups. you need to be smart enough to know who will be good in advance of the season? >> i hope they have somebody to figure that out. this is another coming out-moment for netflix. they have the cash to do it.

you will look at more. several years ago, they said they would never do live sports. they have been creeping toward that as they said they will never do ads. >> it is the best of the media stocks in terms of what we have seen. it is still, you know, it's not back to 700. what was the high? >> 680. that is when "squid games" came out. when "squid games 2" comes out later this year, it will take them back there. >> what is the incremental number that will come out? that is the fundamental question. peacock has done it and others have done it before where you add a live sports event and people sign up just for that event. when peacock did it, it was different. on a christmas day, how valuable are those days?

we don't have netflix in the house and we have to get netflix in the house today? >> i think it is more driver of engagement. i think it will get some subs. it is more engagement. they have more and more inventory to go after advertisers. they are close to 1.5 billion ad revenue run rate. they don't disclose it. that's a guess. i think they will be close to $4 billion in ad revenue. i think they will get there next year. that's a good diversiification for the company. >> how are the efforts used to promote the rest of the platform? you go on the platform and you watch the game and this is how the linear networks do it, go during the commercial breaks. >> just like the mike tyson and jake paul fight and worldwide

wrestling next year. all of these are more and more tentpole opportunities for the company to bring in more users and increasing eengagement. >> the future is no ads? a few ads? >> few ads. >> i know on this. i like one and a half minutes and the thing in the top of the corner i watch. i don't like four minutes. will people still have ad free and pay for it? >> i think they will give you both and let users decide. netflix always without ads and 30% or 40% of the market out there is certainly fine with ads for a cheaper price. if you want ads, you can have ads with a cheaper price. there is a large market for that. that is one thing that netflix did. they took long to embrace advertising. they have. it expanded their market. this was a company that kept taking up prices. they came in with aggressive low

price with $6.99. that is a latte in new york. now they have that content and the nfl games. what a great deal. >> we found out yesterday that even these ads don't work. >> his view is -- >> he thinks 80% of it is a waste of money. >> i don't know about you, but i sit through the ads and see them in a way that is more annoying. >> do you mind a minute and a half or would you rather have none at all? >> my preference is none at all. i'm probably in a position to pay the fee for not having the ads. ing having said that, you have a choice. i was going to ask about the package deal between peacock, owned by the parent company of this network, and paramount plus

with the package? >> i'm not familiar with that. to me, it is a sign of the times. if you put together a streaming bundle, you have to include netflix in there. you negotiate the terms. that's what consumers want. the surveys we have run offer t overth over the years, people want bundles. people will recreate the bundles. they may pay more than in the past. >> keeping my xfinity. we are bringing out hot wings for you. i'm learning so much this week, andrew. how many times have you seen that show? "hot wing" on netflix? >> a lot. >> i'm telling you it's a big deal.

>> they get young demos. >> yeah. coming up, an interesting note on the inflation numbers yesterday. some of the data was posted 0 minutes early on the bls web site. we will bring you the details of what happened after this. initially when i came to the u.s., i didn't speak english. i had to listen first before i spoke. that's allowed me to observe trends happening as they unfold and really shift what i'm doing and what i'm thinking and working on. that's how i think i was able to see the early social media wave and recently on the a.i. side. dad, don't forget about my new cleats. sweetie, i can't make it to dick's this week. have you heard of dicks.com? have i heard of dicks.com? girl: let's go! let's go! have i heard of dicks.com? (screaming) whoa. don't overthink it. let's go shopping. actually what i need are some cleats. how about one of these? great. done. anything else? no. golf clubs? not for me, for a friend... yeah, yeah, of course...

anyone impressed with how fast that was? yeah, totally! i know, i went to dicks... my cleats! thank you! i love you! wha... i-i went to dicks.com. ever heard of it? girl 2: yeah, i told you about that. ( ♪♪ )

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this one is fascinating. some of yesterday's cpi data was inadvertently published 30 minutes early. the bureau of labor posted files to the web site before the release time. the early indications seemed to move markets. we were on air and did not seem to notice the move. the agency saying it is conducting the investigation into the procedures to ensure this incident is not repeated. lots of questions of the information coming from the bureau and the fed. >> this is different from the data that jay powell got to say we are still on track. >> it was richard fisher who said it is possible that jay did

not have the information. >> he's alllallowed. >> often times the president gets the data in the afternoon. >> they should not tell any of the guys in congress or guys and sg gals in congress. >> those good at calling fidelity. >> some members of congress have tens of millions of dollars. some of those people. >> some of them do. some of them do. hopefully they made that money prior to becoming congress members. coming up, we are going whale watching. we reveal big moves from the biggest investors in the world. we will tell you about those investments next. as we head to break, we show you yesterday's s&p winners and losers.

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good morning. welcome back to "squawk box." live from the nasdaq market site in times square. let's check the futures quickly. green arrows across the board. little ones. a lot can change between now and the opening bell. we had two great sessions in a row bringing the averages to new highs and bond yields are back up sharply. gold rallied based on ppi and cpi. one was hot and revision wasn't happen on the ppi. the cpi was received with the notion that inflation was again starting to moderate. new this hour, the eu is investigating facebook parent meta over alleged breaches of content law over child safety risks. it is looking into facebook and instagram may create so-called

rabbit hole effects. the commission said it is concerned about age verification on the meta platforms. meta did not respond to cnbc and request for comment. time to talk about whale watching. some of the world's biggest money managers revealing the first quarter investments and filings. leslie picker has more. >> reporter: andrew, chubb shares yesterday spiked on the revelation that berkshire hathaway named the insurer as the long-awaited mystery pick. berkshire hathaway disclosed the stake of $6.7 billion at the end of q1. comprising of 25.9 billion shares. we have had the position in q3 and q4. yesterday, we learned the mystery name is chubb. now the ninth biggest holding.

there were other interesting financial moves during the quarter as well. we don't always see this. third point took a stake in goldman sachs which had a record high yesterday. dan loeb's firm had exposure to apollo. viking and corevex paired back kkr and michael burry bought citi citigroup. in fact, among the 20 high-profile fund managers we tracked, we saw the biggest inn inflati influx of capital into the quarter. that was drive n by the chubb purchase.

it certainly is good times for the financials, guys. >> are you surprised there is so much interest in the financials? >> reporter: a little surprise, although, a lot of this is part of the catch-up trade last year. most people were expecting recession which would be bad for the publicly traded financials out there. now there is a notion and narrative we achieved a soft landing and people are starting to feel more comfortable buying banks and firms that dabble in private equity because the macro picture has shifted so much and the regulatory picture shifted with the capital roles changing. that bodes well for investors on the sidelines and now, as we see from the filings, coming ack. >> if you piggyback the trades, are you always late?

by default, you are late. >> reporter: these are as of the end of march. these are six weeks delayed. they may have changed. andrew, oftentimes people who chase positions are doing so only to find that the manager has traded out shortly after. >> leslie picker, thank you. coming up, the debates are on. we take a closer look at the upside and downside risk to each candidate. that's next. "squawk box" will be right back. >> announcer: currency check is sponsored by interactive brokers. the best informed investors choose interactive brokers.

energy fuels, a leading american uranium producer, is ramping up production to supply expanding nuclear markets and diversifying into rare earth elements, key ingredients in many clean energy and defense technologies. energy fuels.

it's a beautiful... ...day to fly. wooooo! welcome back to "squawk box." president biden and former president trump will take the debate stage, i don't know if it

is a cage match or not. both agreeing to two dates. the first is june 27th. joining us is alex thompson with axios. good morning to you. let's talk about this happening and the rules imposed or not imposed on this debate. what are we supposed to expect? >> a few important things. there will not be an audience. at the moment it is just one-on-one. no third party candidate. the first hosted by cnn and the second one by abc. this is the earliest presidential debate ever. not by a little bit. a long shot. the earliest before this was september 21st. the second presidential debate is the earliest general election debate ever. june 27th allows the joe biden campaign to do, let's say he has a terrible debate, this gives him four months to make up

damage before election day. >> that seems like a strange str strategy to try to do something and you get another chance at it. >> he'll be four months older which matters. we see four months. you could decline four months with that age. he was a totally different guy two years ago. >> think of it this way, it is a risk by getting on stage with donald trump. donald trump has shown no regard for normal debate rules. you may remember four years ago, he likely had covid and got on stage with joe biden. the biden campaign does not agree trump will be a fair or rational actor here. having it early is a hedge on this bet. basically, joe biden wanted to debate. that's the only reason this is happening right now.

joe biden thinks if he gets on stage with donald trump, it will rebound to his benefit and it will help with some of the polls and that is why this is happening. it is a hedge -- >> what do this advisers think? >> they're split. i have to be honest with you. you saw nancy pelosi speak up to this yesterday when she said that she would advise nobody to get on a stage with donald trump. the president has decided what he wants to do. some of his advisers think he will be fine. there are some people in the biden camp that see this as more risky than not. >> i saw the opposite put forth. that is he saw the swing state numbers last week in "the new york times" and saw those and some of the numbers are staggering. also with hispanics and other

groups that he thought he could count on. he saw those and is being forced to consider a debate. i guess it's possible that the president, himself, says he wants to be in a debate. anybody around him would say, mr. president, think about this, probably. i would think. the notion was he was forced -- his hand was forced to accept it. i say the opposite. i say trump wants the debate to get biden off script and off reading a teleprompter. >> i think it is any of these things. everyone has their own interests. i would not underestimate the power of ego and both candidates pushing for the debates. donald trump's campaign wants a debate every month. they counter proposed one in july and one in august and one in october. they accepted the invitation of fox news with bret baier.

the biden campaign said no deal. we proposed two debates and that's all you get. >> cnn and abc. saying no to bret baier. we know bret. we have seen debates from the other places. i think trump -- i don't know. do you think this is cast in stone and say i want a studio audience or i want some other network to moderate? you don't see any changes, alex? i think he wants to do it so badly, i think he agreed to terms he shouldn't have agreed to. >> absolutely. donald trump gave up leverage when he said he would debate joe biden any time or any place. his staff in washington was handing out cards to reporters. i have one here in my apartment. any time, anywhere, any place.

donald trump was forced to accept those conditions. >> i just don't know. let's say you watch a different network. let's say you watch 12 hours of fox one day. the next day you watch 12 hours of cnn. it is like this. they don't cover the same thing. he's agreeing to go -- i would say enemy territory for a debate. i'm talking about trump. it's a very friendly place for biden. >> certainly the biden campaign feels that which is why this came together so quickly. in terms of the other question, is this set in stone? there is an x-factor here which is under reported which could unravel this thing. the rfk jr. of it all. donald trump and joe biden agree to a one-on-one debate. if you look at the abc

parameters, rfk believes he can make it for the debate. it requires getting on the ballot in that state to get 270 vets. rfk is on the ballot in four states. he has a long way to go. cnn told me that the guidelines remain the same. the biden campaign said they only agreed to a one-on-one debate. what happens if eqhe qualifies? we don't know. >> alex, thank you for this. we will debate the debates for some time. thank you. >> thank you. coming up, a partnership in cloud security software and two look to compete with the cisco acquisition of splunk. that's next. lmwaart is set to report. we will have market reaction at the top of the hour.

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palo alto network is buying q radar from ibm. palo alto will migrate customers to its platform. ibm will train more than 1,000 of the consulting employees on its palo alto products. the ceo said it needs to prepare to go up against splunk. and dell shares trading at the all-time high after march g morgan stanley raising the price target on the stock. dell shares are up 95% year to

date. the jump back in march after the company revealed it benefitted from the a.i. boom. when we come back, more on "squawk box," we will have more with the ceo of exotec. that is all and instant reaction from retail giant walmart. it is a biie quawk box" comes right back after this.

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♪(voya)♪ there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. voya helps you choose the right amounts without over or under investing. so you can feel confident in your financial choices voya, well planned, well invested, well protected. cnbc's 12th annual disruptor 50 list is out, and one sector well represented in this year's roster is logistics. and our next guest is the ceo of ware housing robotics company

exotec, coming in at number ten on the list. romain moulin, ceo of the company. can you describe exactly some of your products to us and to viewers, romain? can we see any of them or at least describe them vividly for us. >> i real describe. thanks a lot for having me and the ceo of exotec. exotec is a warehouse robotics provider. and we provide a system which is based on a fleet of robots running in the warehouse to bring goods to the picker. so anytime you have a distribution center, you might use this technology and what does it provide, it is density, it will fire up to the ceilings, your picker will work five tim

s faster and better and working conditions. that's what we provide them. >> it seems to be both good and bad for existing workforces, romain. seems much safer. a lot of it is work that is difficult, dangerous, i wouldn't say menial, but in warehouses that vertically as you say are, you know, go up 40 feet, whatever, this would be a game changer and i guess that's why we call it a disruptors 50 list because of the disruption. will your company employ enough people to make up for some of the people that no longer need to be in the warehouses? >> yes. in fact, it is not the problem that they are facing, they don't find the people they are looking for. there is a labor shortage which is worldwide and to get back to your first remarks, that's because of the working

condition. ten miles a day, a usual picker. so these are tough conditions, and with our robotics system, we want to improve this condition and to improve the safety as you said. so, yes, it is a trend induced market and customer are really looking for the next generation solution. that's why they come to us. >> you already have pretty good client list too. if you can tell -- carefour and gap and head count up 80%, a billion dollars of systems you recently sold on a $2 billion valuation. long-term, what kind of compound growth do you think you can -- >> we think it is near the beginning. we have reached $1 billion intake in eight years. we are quite a young company and it is incredible to reach such an install base in such a short

time. our customer in different vertical, grocery, carefour, the gap, so our system is applied to many different logistics, many different verticals, which i think as explained our growth and if i take an example of the u.s., we have developed our revenue each time in the past three years. so, i think the system, the products resonate very well with the market need right now. and exotec in terms of head count is also extremely important. we reach 1,000 people now. >> real quick, in terms of what a.i. is doing and what it could present as a challenge to your business in terms of competition, i assume most of these robots were originally built with machine learningand

there is an install base, so that's fabulous. and maybe it is just too hard for people to scale up very quickly, but do you have any concern about that? and what are you doing on the other side of that in terms of a.i. yourself? >> yeah, i see a.i. as a huge opportunity. we already use a.i. in our robots. we have an automated picker, a robot that can manipulate goods in the pods that we transport and this automated picker is based on a.i. a.i. can solve things in warehouses that we never solved before. many goods which are very different, we have a lot of many informations, so this is a technology that will be key and we are integrating it very soon because we know it will change once again. i think we change again the first time with robotics, which means a lot of software and less hardware. if i show you the team, you would see that in fact 70% of the people are doing software

and when you see our system, you see the visible part there, which is the hardware part. so, the algorithm, the software, the a.i. are key in delivering more performance from our system. so a.i. is a part of it. but it is a part that can have a great impact in the coming years, and all the players are working on this topics, and because we can solve once again things that were never solved in the past 40 years with a.i. >> it is interesting. we hope you're steadily moving up the list, romain. you were at -- co-founder with general electric, medical, working on medical robot features prior to this. and then this application must have occurred to you, which is pretty amazing. but we appreciate your time this morning. good luck. thanks. >> thanks a lot. just before 7:00 a.m. here on the east coast. you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc.

i'm andrew ross sorkin with joe kernen. becky is out this morning on assignment. meantime, a lot of stories to tell you about. some of the top ones, take a look at this, the meme stocks, i don't know if they're meme stocks anymore, they have now tumbled. they have tumbled for a second day. like of game stop, amc, blackberry all lower ahead of the open after following yesterday, halting their two-day win streak, despite the pullbacks, gamestop and amc still up more than 120% and 80% respectively so far this week. maybe they still are meme stocks. netflix saying ad supported tier topped 40 million monthly users, up from 5 million a year ago. they launched the ad supported plan at the end of 2022. 40% of all signups come from those plans in countries where they're available. netflix also revealing it will launch its own advertising platform and no longer partner with microsoft for that technology.

wall street journal saying microsoft asking hungs of emp hundreds of employees in the china a.i. division to transfer outside of the country. it comes as tensions continue to accelerate. as we check on futures now, the dow up 35 points, the nasdaq looking to open 30 points higher. over to dom chu who is looking at this morning's premarket movers. >> earnings headliner from last night's close, that's cisco systems. those shares right now are up just about over 4% premarket on shares of just like 75,000 shares or so of volume. it topped consensus estimates for both profits and revenues even though sales did drop by roughly 13% over the same time last year. that's by the way the biggest drop since 2009. there is optimism that customers are working through inventory and getting things done better in the coming months, so cisco up 4%. the mystery stock has been

revealed. for multiple quarters now, warren buffett's berkshire hathaway has been building a sizable stake in an unknown company. we found out late yesterday that it is switzerland based insurer and reinsurance giant chubb. those shares are higher. you see roughly 8.5%, around 25,000 shares of volume premarket for its u.s. listed stock. berkshire hathaway received a special exemption from regulators that put off a disclosure of that investment until it had enough time to build up that stake. that stake is 26 million shares, nearly that amount giving 6.4% stake in chubb. it becomes berkshire's ninth largest holding. we'll keep an eye on that. we have breaking earnings, joe, back over to you. >> went for walmart, looks pretty good here. >> the stock is up. the guidance is good. >> 60 cents a share, above estimates. revenue also grew and beat estimates. $161.5 billion.

that's a quarter. also beating estimates. u.s. comp store sales grew 3.8%. issuing guidance for the second quarter, net sales growth expected in the range of 3.5% out of 4.5%. for the full year, fiscal year, the company now expects to be at the high end or slightly above its previous guidance for net sales growth and operating income growth. melissa repko joins us now with more. she has commentary. >> great to see you. the cfo of walmart said while inflation is a factor, what is driving the performance is gains with shoppers of higher income and he's also seeing that a lot of people are buying online through their third party marketplace. so he said this is coming from growth in units and trips to the store and website, not from inflation. >> is that going to be ticking away share from amazon or is

amazon just growing so fast that that's not what we're talking about. >> that's a good question. it is worth noting that one of the drivers of walmart's performance this time around was its newer businesses like advertising. he told me one-third of their improvement in operating income came from newer businesses like membership program, advertising, fulfillment services for marketplace and that's straight out of walmart's -- sorry, straight out of amazon's playbook. >> right. >> any sign from walmart about overall, the lowend consumer we keep waiting to see stress. but if you're going to go anywhere, as a low end consumer, it might be walmart. >> i asked him about the low income consumer. he said low income consumer is still hanging in there. while he said the pattern has held that people are buying fewer things like home goods and electronics, they are still sticking with walmart and walmart also benefited from having things like delivery for the first time. he said delivery surpassed store

pickup. and he said we got customers that are coming to us more frequently than they have before, and newer customers that we haven't traditionally had, and one of the things interestingly he mentioned is he said the gap between food at home, so, cooking your own food, versus going out to dinner, has grown. and he thinks that that is benefiting their grocery business and causing people to come to them, rather than maybe going to some of the names we heard from last week. >> is there an explanation for how they're capturing this higher end customer in. >> they are really adding the services that amazon has been known for. so that's speedier delivery, express delivery to people's homes and then the wider assortment through the marketplace has allowed them to add things like dyson products or some higher end brands. >> new high, all time. i guess we shouldn't be surprised dow is at -- a lot of the averages are at all time highs, closing in on half a trillion dollars, walmart, quite a company. how about competition, e-commerce competition with

amazon? >> we'll have to see how it plays out, but e-commerce in the u.s. is up 22%, and that was something he pointed out. but one of the other factors that walmart is being watched for is a couple of days ago they announced they will be moving a lot of people to bentonville and to offices and as the nation's largest private employer, they're signaling that they're moving away from remote work and back to the office. so it is interesting to see what that will mean for other employers as well. >> the rest of the country. >> yeah. well, it is early. thanks for coming in, melissa. appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, russian president vladimir putin visiting china, council of foreign relations president emeritus richard haase will join us after the break. didn't we warn him not to cozy up to russia. he doesn't care. and later, from wall street to the white house and back, anthony scaramucci will talk crypto, the markets and his new book. "squawk box" will be right back.

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welcome back to "squawk box." russian president vladimir putin arriving in beijing earlier today fortalks with chinese president xi jinping. joining us now to talk more about the growing russia/china relationship and, i don't know if there is something that needs to be done about it or not, richard haass, senior council, vice president emeritus on council of foreign relations. great to see you. >> great to be back. >> you see the images and think what? >> putin and xi? >> yeah. >> this is an axis growing in the last couple of years.

>> evil axis. >> they clearly oppose an american-led dominated world. the chinese moved awfully close to the russians and ukraine and the chinese, as best i can tell, are not providing them arms, they're providing them with the capacity to make arms. and, you know, i think what we live -- we live in a world now where all the hopes you have great power, coordination, cooperation, are dashed. and the real question for the most part is not what we can achieve in foreign policy, but what we can avoid. neither of these countries has emerged as a partner. >> do we have any leverage? >> over russia, not a whole lot. >> over russia, no leverage. do we have -- >> our support for ukraine. now the spigot has been turned on, we'll see how that plays out over time. over china, look, not a whole lot. with the administration the other day, with the higher tariffs, a form of leverage, it is telling the chinese you can't get away with the return to an

export-led growth model. you can't subsidize your workers and factories at the expense of ours. that gives you a little bit of leverage. we can strengthen taiwan, work closely with japan. we're not going to bring about a china that is going to be a partner. the question is can we push back against china so it doesn't do things that we don't want to see. >> it seems like any other country, objective country, other than russia, would look at what happened in ukraine and, you know, at least see that in world order, just whatever you want to call it, that was horrific what russia orchestrated. is china so, i guess, its own self-interests align it with russia, or is it just completely ignore all the -- what has happened in terms of the human casualties and the cause. does china not care because they do the same thing as the uyguyghur

are they an evil axis? >> russia was sobered by the experience in ukraine, xi jinping must think about, hmm, putin's army didn't perform so well, my own army is untested. >> no second thoughts about what they did to -- look what they did to the cities and to the number of -- i guess people say that about us back in israel, so it is all in the eyes of the beholder. >> the chinese point of view, this is the cost of foreign policy. i don't think that gives them -- >> no recriminations? >> what is the biggest priority for china? xi jinping talks about renuf nati rejuvenation, it is about taiwan. it is a foreign policy goal, not an economic goal. it is not a goal about what is going to happen inside chinese society. this is a somewhat different china. >> let me ask you this, this is jamie dimon speaking yesterday, he said we should be strategic, be thoughtful and fully engage with china. fully engaged with china. they are not an enemy, he says.

they are competing and they want to -- but then he goes on to say, they want a different world than we want. the free and democratic western world. it is worth fighting for. so -- >> i'll let you parse jamie's use of language there. but, look, it is not the cold war. china unlike the soviet union is fully integrated economically in the world. they're everywhere. we can't keep them out. we got to have 2020 vision. we can selectively economically cooperate, big market still, but for strategic goods, we got to be really wary about helping out. we have got to understand the threat they pose to our own workers and all that, and foreign policy, in most instances, we are not on the same page. can we maybe find some ways limited to cooperate? i don't know. but they haven't used their influence with north korea, north korea continues to build up the missile force and nuclear force. they haven't been a big help with iran, as best i can tell, chinese or iran's biggest importer of oil. they haven't been helpful with

ukraine. doesn't make them an enemy. you got to get up in the morning and say the united states and china are not aligned. >> where do you think the relationship is between israel and the united states and the biden administration? good interview yesterday with -- >> arms embargo starting to crack. >> never was an arms embargo. >> distant -- >> 99% of u.s. military aid, close to $4 billion a year is going to israel. enough with the arms embargo talking. the united states has been and is extraordinarily supportive. the interesting story out of israel, i was there a few days ago, the interesting story is what is going on inside the israeli government. you got the israeli defense minister openly breaking with the israeli prime minister. and saying it makes no sense to just go after hamas militarily, this idea you can be sequential, let's try to eliminate hamas, which is an impossible task and then think about what comes after, he said, no, we have to think about what cams after now. we need an integrated policy, a political track in addition to

the military track. the pressures inside the israeli government have surfaced. >> and so how does that play out in your mind and how does that change the relationship with the biden administration if it does at all? and i say -- by the way, i keep raising the biden administration, politically in the united states, this may politically be helping biden in some ways by not sending some of this ammunition to -- you don't think that's what's really happening here. i will also tell you, i think the perception among some people in the united states has moved against president biden as a result of those comments. >> i think president biden is trying to thread a needle. what he's doing is too much for israel from the point of view of -- and from others, doing too little. it is a no-win situation. what is interesting is what the biden administration is arguing for is just what you're hearing from the israeli defense minister. there has got to be a strategy for -- if you want the arab countries to send thousands of forces to govern gaza, they'll

only do it if there is a palestinian dimension to israeli policy. bibi netanyahu's dilemma is if he introduces such a dimension, parts of his coalition may crack and you'll be going in the direction of new elections. he may face a dilemma. the realities on the ground versus the realities of his -- >> it is not months, it is weeks. he doesn't sound like in his own mind he's not saying what you just said the defense minister is saying. he's going. will that work and is it -- someone said, don't want to use whac-a-mole, but now hamas is re-emerging in northern gaza, someone said it was like cutting the grass, you cut it, and then two weeks later -- >> ugly expression mowing the grass. you can't find a conventional war in an unconventional setting. if you want to persuade the people of gaza -- >> trying to change hearts and minds for 40 years, richard. how do you -- >> here it is a narrow thing.

you want to say, you don't want to support hamas, there has got to be a better way for palestinians to achieve some of their political ambitions, that's a legitimate -- >> voting in hamas to govern gaza was probably not -- coloss elections there, it is a good example that -- >> what is it, a two-state solution again? are we back to that? >> we'renot there now. in israel, people aren't ready to talk about a two-state solution after what happened on october 7th, there has to be separation. there has got to be a palestinian state, maybe a three-state solution. the point is if you want israel to remain a jewish democratic state, it cannot remain forever in occupation of 5 million, 6 million, 7 million palestinians. this is something israelis need to do for themselves and the palestinians. it you need a palestinian partner. you need palestinians who aren't hamas, can't be the current palestinian authority that is feckless. we need a new generation, that's

going to take time. it is going to take not months, but years to build palestinians who are willing and able to co-exist peacefully with israel and to govern their own territory. that's got to be a point. >> how does israel prevent another october 7th? >> they have to strengthen their own intelligence. october 7th should have never happened. that is on israel's own failures. you do not allow hamas to come back. you work with saudi arabia, with the united arab emirates, egypt, and say we want you guys to police gaza, what will it take for you to do that? what do you need from us? that's the conversation that has to happen. i was just in the uae, just in kuwait, and so forth, these countries are ready to have that conversation if israel is ready to -- >> do you think netanyahu's days should be numbered? is that -- just sort of hear that in your voice. >> i think he needs to change his policy. whether he stays or not, that's for israelis to decide. i do believe right now his

military only first we sort this out militarily and then turn to -- that cannot succeed. i think whether he stays or not, that's up to israelis. i believe the policy has to change. i think the israeli -- >> i'm going to get really complicated for you. if there is a transition of government inside israel over the next six months, what does that do to the politics here in the united states as it relates to president biden and foreign president trump. >> i don't think it has a big change on our politics. do you think most americans are going to the polls this november going to be focusing on this as opposed to the border as opposed to inflation, as opposed to 100 other domestic issues. i don't think this is going to be driving the election, maybe some voters -- >> the reason i mentioned it is i think that you could argue that some of the things that are happening on campuses around the country are driving elections, or driving perceptions of things and so they all are interrelated in a way. >> best hope there is summer vacation. and the end of the school year. >> iran, i thought something was

starting there, and both sides, they didn't want -- like both sides said, look, we don't want to do this. >> that was interesting, not a lot of good news coming out of the middle east, the ability of israel and iran to have informal rules of the road so that didn't escalate, i thought that was a rare piece of diplomacy that they -- >> things are firing from both countries at each other. >> that was impressive. the administration, biden administration deserves some credit for keeping the lid on that. what we haven't seen is the situation in the north with hezbollah get out of hand yet. i'm not going to sit here and be positive about the middle east, but that was a rare piece of careful diplomacy in a part of the world where you don't see a lot of it. >> richard haass, thank you. good to see you. up next, tesla planning to test robo taxis in china, it faces some stiff competition there. a live report from beijing is next. bitcoin surging, up, like,

3,000 or $4,000, back above 66,000, trading above now its 50-day moving average for the first time since mid-april. we'll talk crypto and more with anthony scaramucci. "squawk box" will be right back. >> announcer: time for aflac's trivia question. which novelist published "the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde." the answer when "squawk box" returns. - nostril! uh-uh... bill! uh-huh... - hip-hop! - limping! mmhmm! medical bills! uh-huh! - pancakes! - cash! who pays you cash when you have medical bills? grrr! no idea. [tapping] gap! the gap left by health insurance? who pays cash to help close that gap? aflac! oh, aflac! get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover at aflac.com pictionary?! it's time. yes, the time has come for a fresh approach to dog food. everyday, more dog people are deciding it's time

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>> announcer: now the answer to today's aflac trivia question. which novelist published "the strange case of dr. jekyll and mr. hyde?" the answer, robert louis stevenson. tesla ceo elon musk hopes to test his robo taxis in china, but the ev maker is entering a market with some stiff competition and eunice yoon joins us from beijing with more. hey, eunice. >> reporter: well, tech giant baidu has a fleet of 500 robo taxies already in the city of wuhan. and this week the company announced that it plans to expand that to 1,000 fully self-driving robo taxis by the end of this year. so, we went to wuhan to find out just what the service is like

today. i'm at my hotel in wuhan and i'm going out to dinner. i decided i'm going to take baidu's self-driving robo taxi. you need a special app, but not everyone can ride. a notice pops up and warns no young children, pregnant women, elderly, the infirmed or anyone with a bad heart. i'm in the right part of town to get the service, but the app says i need to walk to 100 feet to get to the closest station to board the robo taxi. it costs about the same as a regular taxi. we got one. it is coming in 15 minutes. here is the robo taxi, but there is a driver inside. the staffer told us to catch an unmanned cab, weneeded to go to another pickup point, less than half of the taxis still come with safety personnel. we did. and another showed with another assistant. finally, we got one without a human. great. no one is inside except for us. we're on our way, but we're moving kind of slowly, about 30

miles an hour. on china's notoriously chaotic roads, the robie taxi drove up a ramp, made a u-turn and negotiated its way around bikers riding tandem and a driver. in an emergency, you press this for help. so it took us a little bit of time, but we finally got here. the baidu robo service is 24/7 and it looks like the car is going to go off for another trip. and what we learned is that this is a real experiment because from the time that we first called for an unmanned cab, joe, it took us four hours before we actually got the cab. but once we were in it, it actually works. >> right. the 500 operating robo taxis, which you said at the beginning, i was, like, that's amazing, and

going to a thousand, it is not quite true. exactly. well, no, it is, i mean, there are some that have the driver assist -- >> safety driver. >> reporter: i know. it is a work in progress as baidu executive told me. but i also felt that was interesting is what happens if you're in there, you have an emergency, so i asked the baidu executive, you know, what do you do in that kind of situation, and they said that you would have to have the peace of mind to go on to the app and change the destination, so in case you're going to the office and you have to go to the hospital, you change the destination on the app, or you could do what i did, which is call the sos button and then an agent comes on and they can remotely stop the car for you. and one thing that she said to reassure us is they have 360 degree cameras, both inside and outside of the car. so they're constantly monitoring you for safety purposes and, in

fact, at one point, we opened the door accidentally in the cab and they told us, please close the door. >> is elon's technology superior to this right now, do you think, sorkin? what he wants to test or is it all the same? it is years until this is really -- go ahead, eunice. >> reporter: no, no, no, i was going to just say that, you know, obviously he's not here yet. there is a lot of expectation that tesla is going to be rolling out robo taxis here and experimenting as well. there was some commentary about that in the state press just yesterday. there was an article about how baidu had spoken tosome of the local reporters, and said that they would be open to the idea of working with tesla on the robo taxi. on tesla's robo taxi, depending on the progress and rollout of

the robo taxi but baidu wouldn't comment on that report. >> the vehicles you were in, they have lidar, radar? how do crews and waymo produce their cars and what technology they use in tesla, which is camera own. >> reporter: yeah, so it is not camera only. so my assumption is that it would be lidar because there are now six generations of these cars and baidu is working with different car manufacturers, all local, to be able to bring the price down. in fact, this week, they announced the sixth generation of their car and they saidthat they can now sell it for $28,000 per car, which is less than half of what they were selling the previous generations, so you could see the ways in which baidu is trying to get ahead and really trying to roll this out here in china, and perhaps internationally. >> okay, eunice yoon in beijing

this morning, thank you. coming up, sky bridge capital's anthony scaramucci out with a new book, talking about his journey from wall street to washington. and then next hour, transportation secretary pete buttigieg o sciisurpeal guest. do not go anywhere. "squawk box" coming right back after this. but it's not the critic who counts. with every swing and block, your game plan never changed. ♪♪ some still call it luck. let them. because you know what it's always been. inevitable. ♪♪ ♪♪

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> welcome back to "squawk box." a couple of quick corporate stories, walmart shares are rising this morning. retailer posting a better than expected earnings and revenue number. also raising its full year forecast. deere shares falling, the agricultural equipment manufacturer cutting its profit forecast for the full year. pfizer agreed to pay up to $250 million to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits over cancer risks associated with zantac, its discontinued heartburn drug. the exact amount has not yet been finalized. it continues to vigorously

against the lawsuits, which they say are not supported by reliable science. coming up, anthony scaramucci talks bitcoin in the market and return of the mcdonald's value meal. for a month anyway. it looks to lure customers back to its locations amid some high food prices. but will it work? under armour's results are out and they approved a restructuring plan and a $500 million share buyback. stock der unpressure. "squawk box" coming right back. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today.

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it's a beautiful... ...day to fly. wooooo! bitcoin's surging more than 7% on wednesday having its best day since march 25th. cryptocurrency taking off after a cooler than expected cpi report. right now, bitcoin is still above 66. joining us, anthony scaramucci, sky bridge capital founder and managing partner. his new book is "from wall street to the white house and

back" it does go over his experience and it is four pages. it is a pamphlet because it -- >> you're making fun of the pages. also 954,000 sometimes i say it to my therapist. >> every second was -- you could probably write did every -- >> 221 pages. >> 221 pages. is there -- if i pay him to read it, he charges me for the index. there is no index. >> no. you can buy is on audible. thank you for bringing up the book. >> are you -- do you have updates on the institutional adoption of bitcoin? i've seen some comments, everything is eventually going to be on lightning or -- >> lightning network. listen, i think the institutional adoption is happening now. the state of wisconsin announced

we expect other pension funds to announce and, of course, bitcoin now has the regulatory approval and i think that was the rate limiting step for a lot of these large scale institutions and just remember, if you're not long bitcoin, you're possibly short bitcoin in the sense that if you believe and i think blackrock is more or less said this, this will be part of a long-term tactical asset allocation strategy for institutional investors, then at some point you got to get long bitcoin. is it a percent of bitcoin, 1.5% bitcoin? i don't know. so, a lot of smart institutions are saying let me get long this thing before it becomes part of a total tactical asset allocation index. that is starting to happen now and that's very good for bitcoin. >> is it because it is a hedge against 34 trillion in money printing or whatever it is? or is it going to be used to seamlessly transact around the world? or both?

>> i'm in the digital gold category. michael saler, will say, no, this is in the universal currency category, meaning it will eventually be the standardized currency for the world over things like the lightning network. but i think what is important for people to do is do the homework on bitcoin. when you do the homework on bitcoin, you go toward bitcoin, i know very few people that have done the homework, you know, several hundred hours of understanding bitcoin, not just reading the right paper, but rally understanding the history of money and all the different boxes that bitcoin checks off. >> that was a revelation. >> i have been in trouble on this, because i announced our -- we announced sky bridge our bitcoin position in november of 2020. and a lot of institutions, wire houses, they didn't like it, they didn't like the position, it is four years later, now these very same wire houses are

adopting the position and are getting long the etf or allowing financial advisers to recommend the etf. so, you know, sometimes when you're early, you get a lot of bumps and scrapes, but it pays to be early in bitcoin and i think we're still early in bitcoin. >> if they're really -- if there is 21 million and it is going to eventually have a -- some percentage of what the gold market is, why -- it should be 150 by the end of the year, i have no idea what 150,000 is by the end of the year, if it seems like if that's a given, it should be moving up even more quickly. >> let's just do the math. let's say goal is $16 trillion, let's say tom lee is wrong by half, which i don't think he is, and i appreciate him coming to my book party last night, i think tom lee is going to be right. but if bitcoin got to $8 trillion -- >> a coifed tom lee or wild tom

lee? >> it was wild tom lee. he's so zen-like, so smart. doesn't have your or my emotional wave length, joe, you know, we have a tendency to sign and co-sign. >> our product. >> no. i need more product lately, joe. not less product. more product. >> go ahead. go ahead. go ahead. >> i have a political -- >> go ahead. i know where you're -- >> what do you think i'm going to say? >> i know where you're going. >> i'm going to sit over here and i'm going to represent 80 million -- >> big news of the morning, the last 24 hours -- >> you're going to gang up on me. >> the big news of the past 24 hours is biden is going to debate trump, trump is going to debate biden. what do you think of this decision? is this a good idea for biden, bad idea for biden, good idea for trump, bad idea for trump? what does the cage match look like, the results? >> i think it is a great idea for biden.

and i think the trump team is probably now looking at those conditions that mr. trump impetuously agreed to and they're probably worried about a few of those onditions. so now what is at issue, trump said you make up the rules, i'll debate you anyplace, anytime, they made up the rules and he hit the bid and now -- >> why do you think this is going to be very good for biden? >> because there is low expectations. anytime you enter the debate -- >> even andrew has low expectations. >> the president is way more put together, and he's way sharper than people want to give him credit for. he does have a stutter that has plagued him his entire life and he is older, but as i've said on this show and other shows, i would take somebody older and slightly forgetful over somebody that is full on crazy. so, to me, i love nato, i love the international order, i love the fact that we have very, very smart people that are working on

things like the economy. i don't like the impetuousness of donald trump. >> a number of your peers on wall street, who i think had moved away from trump and are now moving back. i'm thinking of, you know, i don't know if they ever moved away, but ken griffin, so many others, there is a whole bunch of people that are moving back into trump camp and folks like bill ackman, i don't know he's fully into trump camp, but clearly in an antibiden camp with the hope that somehow he's going to find some new candidate who is going to emerge. >> i had president -- then vice president biden and bill at a dinner at the conference in 2017 and -- >> ackman? >> there was some soreness there. it spilled over to where we are now. i think bill is an analytical guy. i think that's his objective view. he thinks mr. trump is going to win. that's his objective view. i think mr. trump is going to

lose because this is a get out the vote situation. these are two candidates that have been in the public spotlight for five decades. there is very few people in the united states that don't know who they are. this is not the barack obama 2008 introduction tour. these are two known entities. >> what do you think -- there is an argument to be made, though, i don't know if you think -- i don't know if you think it is helping him or hurting him, the fact that trump is, you know, down in the courthouse, and has been muzzled, does that help him? there is a view that the public doesn't see him that much, that people forget about some of the things that might be considered on the crazy side, but another view that, you know, he needs to be out there in front of a lot of people to get them excited and riled up. how does this cut? >> is he getting a lot of attention being at the courthouse? i think he is. i think the -- >> it is a different type of attention. >> you see the former president would tell you that any type of attention is good. good attention, bad attention,

negative attention, you pick the attention, get the spotlight on me, you get the spotlight on me, my name recognition goes up. and these presidential contests are generally popularity contests, not hiring decisions by the american people, it is a popularity contest. and so he likes this sort of stuff -- >> it is who do you like, though, or who do you hate the least. >> he loves all of these guys showing up with the long red tie and the white shirt and they're doing this in front of the camera outside the courthouse. he loves that stuff. >> bill ackman tweeted out, that's how we happened to see it, victor david hanson, a synopsis of the -- did you read that, the background of -- when you say he's -- i feel anybody that has a stuttering problem, i feel bad for them, that conjures sympathy, there is a lot more in

joe biden's history than stuttering and a lot more of problems that he has right now are not tied to stuttering. >> i think you know that the american people, 70% of the american people would prefer two other choices than these two. >> right. that's what i'm saying. both sides are holding their nose. >> this is sort of the relics of the -- >> you're a life long republican and -- >> life long republican. >> maybe you think that -- >> socially i'm liberal. i think you share that. >> there are times when president biden is saying certain things about corporate america or where you probably say, oh, he's just appealing to the populist side of things, he doesn't believe in those -- >> a lot of what he does is anathema and his policies are anathema to what you stood for your whole life. and so is trump. >> i don't want to -- i'm not here to defend trump. >> but if there were 40 people that worked at a pharmaceutical company or 40 people that worked

at an aircraft manufacturer or automobile company and they said to you, hey, this is not working, you got 40 people in the -- the former vice president of the united states that will not endorse the current potential republican nominee. he was on the ballot with him. >> you can find both now. you can find both now. i can mention other people, mnuchin -- >> the secretary of commerce, wilbur ross. >> i'm not going to out people. >> you can't find people who worked for biden. >> they went in knowing what they were -- >> if i told you the drug, i was there, i watched the drug getting made, it is going to kill you, will you take the drug? the drug is going to kill you, joe. >> there is a nostalgia coming back to what we had for four years versus where we are. you can't deny it. >> nostalgia for the checks being written to every american family. >> i'm just trying to tell you something, there is a surgeon general's warning label on the

candidate. this candidate is dangerous for your health. this candidate is dangerous for democracy. >> the country is split down the middle. you either got stupid people or traitors. just respect the other side that they have a different point of view than you. >> i grew up with the other side. >> they have a different point of of view. not everyone a trump backer is stupid or a traitor. >> i didn't say that. >> they're not listening to you. >> that's not it, joe. this week we grew up, you and i, a blue-collar aspirational america and turned it into something else and trump is an avatar for those people and i respect that. >> it's not just that. >> book called "from wall street to the white house" and back. anthony scaramucci. the scaramucci guide to unbreakable resilience. how do you have this resilience? >> i have to deal with joe. >> i told you it was going to be back to me. to help you see untapped possibilities

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welcome back to "squawk

box." mcdonald's is rolling out at special $5 value menu trying to lure price-conscious participants. >> have people loving it. problem consumer at lower end of the income spectrum painfully stretched. we saw on wednesday the cpi report, leaving less for splurges like eating out. not just mcdonald's issue. remember starbucks earnings two weeks ago. ugly. more consumers looking for deals. same with wendy's. the ceo backed off the idea hiking prices during busy times. chipotle is doing well but still in growth mode compared with mcdonald's, which is everywhere. so what will $5 at mcdonald's and a value menu get you? sounds great. a sandwich, mcchicken or mcdouble, never heard of.

apparently a budget double cheeseburger only one slice of cheese. small fries, small drinks. passes amendments of the constitution. sent it back, numbers don't work. coca-cola broke the deadlock kicking in incentives. now mcdonald's has a simple message with a low price people want. >> subsidized? hilarity! yeah. >> okay. that might be trafficked in june. the question, will it linger? wh what's going to happen when it goes away? >> "on the other hand," argue on a call, ad campaign do wonder. not fixing the fact labor costs risen, food prices staying high and competition for the fast-food dollar on the high earned and from groceries lower

end. real problem q1 of last year mcdonald's raised menu prices to cover costs and average ticket size won't down. a warning a reckoning was coming. now, a bright spot. on the technology side the touch-screen kiosks now in one and four stores, allowing more low-cost sales and smartphone ordering and delivery are catching up. where the pitch will come from for mcdonald's . not value ads and campaigns. this blocked the menu because it pinches profits. yes, mcdonald's has to have loyalty programs to boost frequency but with labor costs higher, thanks, california, the company needs tech maybe even a.i. to lower productivity. not just lower prices, lower costs. >> until we get awed mated and robots, i feel bad. there are people, their first experience with work. an entry-level position and they're going away. if you have to pays $25 --

>> go away or fewer people per restaurant and maybe more restaurants. >> newsletter -- >> hash it out in the newsletter. a qr code on the screen for you even to open up your phone quick. quick. got to get it. or type in cnbc.com and get the full text of both of these arguments and you can share. >> thanks. coming up, under armour -- >> fast tv. >> under armour under pressure. we discuss it after a break. we'll be right back. after doing about eight years active duty, additional four reserves, i wanted to go after that lifelong dream. since graduating, i've gotten promoted; and i'm able to operate with confidence now because i now have the technical expertise. at university of maryland global campus, i feel i can accomplish anything. >> learn about our more than 125 online degrees and certificates at umgc.edu.

it's 8:00 on the east coast. you're watching "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm joe kernen along with very talented mr. andrew ross sorkin. >> know what? >> becky off today. back tomorrow. coming back on friday. that -- that's dedication. isn't it. >> it is. >> just as easy to say, see you monday. she'll be here. among the top stories, walmart shares jumping to all-time high, better than expected first quarter results. expect to his high end or slightly top previous year's

guidance. and chubb jumping. the stock that berkshire hathaway built a stake in. secret mystery stock, built a stake in the company both $6.7 billion as of end of march. only got, like, 200 -- how much left to go? 200 million left to the try to deploy? this doesn't really help that much. does it? >> no. toughness. >> and new york's federal reserve president john williams telling reuters in an interview yesterday's cooler than expected cpi data isn't enough to warrant rate hikes in the near future. williams said a monetary policy is, in his words, in a good place. futures this morning, have been -- in the positive range after a couple of big sessions, but as you can see just barely. that's with a three-point move in walmart. not everything is chipping in but at new highs. treasurys this morning.

433. an immediate move down we saw in yields yesterday, on the cooler cpi. let's get to dom chu. among other things moving as well. pre-market movers. dom? >> so, thank you. talented mr. kernen. caught up on other earnings headliners not walmart. joe just mentioned. start with deere down 5%. 60,000 shares pre-market volume. maker of farm, forestry construction and heavy equipment. considered an economic bellwether stock. reported better than expected profits and revenues but cut the profit forecast at falling prices have take an toll on demand from the farmers buying heavy equipment. shares down about 5%. move across the pacific for our next earnings mover. jd.com. stock rose over 800,000 shares volume reporting better than expected quarterly results. helped in part by discounting and shop rewards strategies

helping drive customer transactions. otherwise slowing in the chinese economy overall. and cap things af with news on netflix. streaming jintd up fractionally pre-market around 10,000 shares of volume. netflix says ad supported topped 40 million monthly users up from 5 million a year ago. keep an eye on netflix shares and now back to the talented mr. sorkin. back to you. >> thank you from the talented dom chu. and under armour shares tumbling. down by 11% right now. reporting quarterly results. the company's board with a restructuring plan. part it's what's going on. reporting earnings 11 cents a share. 3 cents bet than estimates. revenue $1.3 billion in line with estimates. joining us, williams trading analyst sam. what is going on with his company? >> i mean, we were very confused

why they made the change in, in leadership a few months ago. this is the first time we'll get to hear what's going on. we had thought they were making good progress. clearly the progress wasn't up to what kevin plank was anticipating. so, you know, sort of a wait and see still. i guess it could be argued it's good that they're pulling back, but we had sort of thought they were pulling back enough, and making appropriate adjustments. you know, kevin plank's been fairly aggressive at his prior leadership at under armour. we have yet to see where he's going with this, but certainly the numbers, you know, from a revenue perspective for guidance, $750 million under the street's numbers, u.p.s., i mean the street 59 cents. they're saying 18 to 21 cents next year. why we're seeing the big move in stock right now. >> can you explain, though, for a company that has had folks

like tom brady involved in it. currently steph curry. why they haven't been able to break out of this -- this challenging period? is there a product issue? is it a distribution issue? >> it's -- it's -- it's a -- i think the company's been unwilling to pull back enough in past years, and now they're scrambling to do so. i mean, back when sports started shorts chalet went out of business, i think 2016, they kept driving revenue at that time, versus, and put a lot of product that was distributed in some of their better distribution like dick's into retailers like kohl's and never done a great job segmentingthe product. that appeared to have been starting, and based on this restructuring maybe, you know, it's happening, but the problem is, it's that they don't have a

lot of must-have product. you know. i don't know how much product tom brady would sell, but i think may have missed opportunities with steph curry both from a product and from a marketing perspective. over time. >> sam, stock trading now at 6.08. you know, you have a retailer target on it. yoel know if you changed or revised it this morning. do you buy it at this price and is it a great value opportunity? or you see risks outweighing that? >> just to be -- when they announced this, this change in leadership, i had, i lowered my price target and down graded to neutral. i haven't touched the rating or price target since then because i thought it would all be g guesswork in a sense. we have to wait and see. i have a whole rating on the

stock. i don't think -- there's always opportunity but i don't really foresee -- i think, see how it plays out. >> thank you for joining us this morning. good to see you, as we try to make sense of this news this morning from under armour. when we come back, a lot more on "squawk box." a conversation, atlas merchant capitalist bob diamond joining us on the set after the break. the all new godaddy airo helps you get your business online in minutes with the power of ai... ...with a perfect name, a great logo, and a beautiful website.

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oh. we're back. having a conversation. right to our next guest. here to talk markets, banks, inflation and fed policy. bob diamond, ceo of atlas merchant capital. former ceo of barclays and, like all of us, amateur -- you're much more. less amateur than we are about w watching the fed. at the time 150, 175 basis points. ever believe what the market would think at that point? you said maybe half that at

most? >> we talked in january. remember? it was clearly in the market it was going to be 150 to more. and my sense at the time was, there was far more risk for the fed, for the chairman of the fed, to ease rates with the economy as strong as it was, and the worst thing that could happen is an ease. it's a stokes inflation a little bit, and you have to come back in and raise rates. i did not believe there would be first-half rate cuts. i -- i remember telling you in january, maybe towards the end of the year. maybe one, and i think, well, the economy's a little softer right now. so i think it's a bit more balanced, but maybe this year. maybe not. >> what you said right at the beginning of, when we were speaking here was, the worst thing that can happen is if they don't continue tightening? it stokes market sentiment, or whatever, and then they have to -- sounded like describing what we have sort of seen, but

saying no. that we are seeing some affect to the restrictive policy that will allow them to cut? >> i think so. if you -- like, look at the second half of last year. so we talked in january. we just had the second half of last year. the economy was a bit stronger than anyone thought. inflation was a bit lower than anyone thought. and the labor force was, labor markets, still really, really tight. so in a way, in january, i'm saying to myself, they actually can't cut. now look at the first half of this year. i would say for most of us the economy is a little softer than maybe we thought. >> maybe. >> inflation's a little higher than maybe we thought. >> yeah! >> and for the first time we're seeing a little softness in the labor market. >> maybe. >> actually in a position they can't raise. >> seeing higher in indexes and bitcoin, and -- i mean, you're sure the economy is slowing and sure the labor market is weakening? i'm not sure. and you're sure inflation is

moderating? >> we have to watch the numbers opinion i think what efi feel pretty confident about, you and i talked about, too. if you look at the marketsened a t -- and the go-forward, much better at 5% than at 0. abnormal envimronenvironment, 1 years 0% interest rates. >> why are we rushing to get back there and why is europe -- does europe, cut before us? >> i think both europe -- uk will lead, europe second and both ahead of the u.s. now, to some extent, ithink they need it. right? their economies are a little -- have not recovered as well as the u.s. economy. so i think they need that -- that, you know, impetus to economic growth a little bit more than we do. i think what's fortunate for europe is, they've come in to the first half of this year. the economy's a little stronger

than people expected and inflation a little lower. so i think they are poised to cut, joe. >> the banks have been breaking out, especially like jpmorgan. why? yield curves steepening? they're loaning more? what is so positive for the banks, and is there anything on the horizon, commercial real estate, anything that is disturbing? >> there's a lot of things. particularly in the portfolios. you mentioned commercial real estate. if you vero base it on banks, and obviously jpmorgan's performing well, but look at the 4.5 thousand banks in the u.s. just those banks. >> right now all 4.5,000? >> 4.5 thousand. we'll see consolidation. >> can't do them all. >> definitely going to cut them. >> really? >> no question. say there's a strong bank that's feeling good today. they've weathered the interest rate. weathered the commercial real estate, and all they're doing is saying, we're strong today.

what's the go-forward? forget advisories. that's the litmus test for banks. the real litmus test, those that take depot is the and make loanance, what's the go-forward. far better than 0% interest rates. next move likely lower, not higher. great for banks. there is probably as much demand for lending as there has been in a couple of years. so the go-forward, for core banking, i think the go-forward banking opportunity in the market environment is pretty good. >> got to go. you always have things to ask bob diamond. what's on your mind? >> got to go, burt -- well, the question i would ask, if you looked at all of these whale filings, chubb and some of the stuff dan is buying, goldman. would you buy financials right here at this point or that anyone's too late?

>> we are definitely investing in financial services, but our focus is very much outside of kind of the big public listed banks. i think what we're seeing a lot of people invest, to your point, andrew, is in insurance platforms. where they can be married. >> right. with something else. >> with their portfolios. i think that's what dan is looking at and i think it makes sense. >> youlike scottie scheffler? >> i think this is rory's week. going to get a major. >> on a personal basis? now -- free, at last! >> we got to go. got to go. >> golf, golf. >> i know. >> scottie scheffler, like that, and hit the ball. >> and like that when i'm dancing. okay, secretary pete buttigieg joining us live right after the break. i don't know if he plays golf, but we'll nifind out when "squa box" returns.

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welcome another special guest this morning. transportation secretary pete buttigieg hwho joins us on a number of topics. fight over airline fees and another ship crashing into a bridge. thank you for joining us. start with this faa reauthorization bill. what's in it, what's not, and how happy or unhappy you may very well be about it? >> so we're really glad to see this pass. glad to see it pass on a bipartisan basis in the senator and last night in the house. this includes a number of provisions that help support the faa continuing in our course of enhancing safety. also a very important consumer protection provision. you'll recall a few weeks ago our department put forward a requirement that air funds, if they owe a passenger money, they get that refund automatically. a big question whether the bill would align with that and

ultimately it did. as a matter of fact, it fortifies that putting into law so a future administration couldn't strip it away. we're happy with this, ready to run with it now. other thing, important for the faa we're still working to do. notably, a mandatory account that will help with capital spending to do these big i.t. upgrades, will fall in the budget. a different legislative vehicle, but certainly this authorization piece is good news and we're thrilled to see it pass and get to the president's desk. >> but let's -- interrelated to all of this conversations hidden fees. a little separate issue i know but airlines and industry straight filing a lawsuit against the department of transportation as a result of the efforts to try to overturn or -- this rule for hidden fees. you've taken to x and said you were speechless. anything more to say than just being speechless? >> yeah. so the same week we put out that

rule on automatic refunds we put ot a rule on fee transparency. basic idea, before you buy a ticket the airlines ought to tell you all costs associated. what change fees, cancel fees, baggage fees et cetera are connected to that ticket and concerned about bait and switch situations. hey, air f.a.r.e. is half off. you book the ticket a bunch of things are a part of the ticket and they don't count as air f.a fare and are not half off. they need to put that information out and airlines are suing us. airline industry lobby, more specific, saying that this information would be confusing for consumers. we are inclined to trust consumers. i think vast majority of americans would agree. we will defend the rule. we think it's the right rule, good policy and based on our legal authority to intervene and prevent any kind of unfair deceptive practices. >> is it about the deception piece or is it about the trying

to put just a total on it? because it's not just -- there are the times you're referring to but also times you go and see the airfare and realize that, you know, you want bags got to pay extra. want this, pay extra. you want this -- by the time it's over the price could be several hundred dollars more? >> so we're not setting a cap or a number. we haven't done that since the days of regulation. and we're not saying that you can't have some kind of unbundling. because there's a healthy debate over how far you go with unbundling. it may be some customers appreciate being able to get a lower fare knowing they're not going to take it back. not saying you can't charge for carry jon bags. some interested in a rule like that. if you do, tell the passenger up front. another thing in our refund rule. charge for something like a bag and the bag doesn't get there or charge for wi-fi and it doesn't work, you need to get your money back on that as well.

>> help me with that one, by the way. wi-fi. it never works. how are they going to know that the wi-fi didn't work for the two hours of the five-hour flight and actually get me my money back? >> tell them and if they're not being responsive, tell us. we'll follow-up. we have billions of dollars of refunds back to consumers and ready to chase this and get people what's owed to them. >> we'll let you know. meantime, department of justice, curious about your reaction to their findings on boeing. also curious what the tell the american publicing when it comes to getting 0 an boeing flight? actually seen people online and other places saying, i'm looking for airbus plane? >> i got on a boeing airplane a few days paying and i will in a couple hours. anytime i get on a boeing, it's backed by the faa and flight crews and precisely wee we're putting so much scrutiny on them

now. restricting their production until it's expanded safely. this is all about taking what is currently the safest form of travel in the world, which is sb being on a u.s. airliner and doing everything it takes to keep it that way. we will be extremely rigorous and extreme scrutiny on the aviation side and pushing our culture to get something recem belonging roadway safety. we saw roadway deaths go down by between 3% and 4% last year off a number of 40,000. something like one or two thousand people didn't die last year just off of that gain. we need to keep driving those numbers down until they get to zero. the number of passengers ho lost their lines in the airline crashes last year e. and a related question, but might thinking a curves ball of short. keep talking robotaxis on the

broadcast. we w waymo is tlhere and others. what is a palatable number, where you and government officials say, know what? we've got the number down from 35,000, 40,000 deaths to 5,000 deaths, but 5,000 deaths will be result not a huge be making a mistake but potentially a computer? >> you're right. a real paradox here. seems like the public would be more accepting of more deaths and injuries caused by people than caused, so to speak, by machines. but i also think we have an opportunity and a responsible to say about these new technologies. the standard should be, don't just be "as good" as a human driver. be much, much better thaw we can. part of what we have contemplated in our new rule on automatic emergency brakes, for example. set a new regulation that means can't be a bell and whistle.

standard on every car. part of what we're thinking about sensors on those cars. they can or should see in the rain, in nighttime better than humans. not just make it "as good" as humans but make it much better. i think 100 years from now i wouldn't be surprised people are scratching their heads, that untrained human beings are driving cars at all but we have to get from here to there. >> got to roll. one final question. pretty good debater. i want to know, did the president consult you about this decision to debate former president trump coming up in june and again later in the fall? and -- >> i'm not -- yeah. i'm not involved in campaign tactics. got my hands full with what the president's asked me to do on the transportation front. what i'll say ask that we have a really good story to tell in his administration and i'm proud to tell it out on the road celebrating projects. happy infrastructure week! it's literally infrastructure week and finally not a joke here in washington. funding to back it up.

and you know, the other things we're doing. proud of the work the president's done. >> mr. secretary, appreciate you joinusing this morning. >> thank you. >> "squawk box" coming right back. we got some numbers for you in just a minute. i'm just here for the internets. at&t it's super-fast. reliable. you locked us out?! arrggghh! ahhhh! solution-oriented. [jenna screams] and most importantly... is the internet out? don't worry, we have at&t internet back-up. the next level network. i sold a pillow! [♪♪] your skin is ever-changing, take care of it with gold bond's age renew formulations of 7 moisturizers and 3 vitamins. for all your skins, gold bond.

welcome back to "squawk box." rick santelli here live at cme hq with breaking news of the mo morning. start with jobless claims. 222,000 following a slightly revised 232,000. so we're down 10k. continuing claims. 1 million 794,000. that is definitely a little bit hotter than expectations, in the rearview mirror, a subtle lower revision from 1 million 785 to 1 million 781. so we continue to remain under 1.8 million in. the last time over that was the last week in march. let's move towards april housing starts. expected to be 1 million 421,000 seasonally adjusted annualized united units. super light. 1 million 360.

1 plmillion 360. lowest since the rearview mirror. down to 1 million 287,000. these are really weak numbers. if you look at last month, last month is the weakest level going all the way back to june of 2020. so these are huge misses on starts. look at permits. 1 million 440,000. that is less than the 1 million 480,000 we were expected. in the rearview mirror, a positive revision from 1 million 458,000 to 1 million 485,000. so the 1 million 440,000, that is the weakest going back to april of last year. let's look at phillie fed business outlook for may. a may number. 4.5. expecting the number closer to 8. so a little bit of a disappointment, but not much. and if you look back, we've had quite a streak of negative numbers. this remaining positive is fairly good, a fairly good thing.

look at april import prices. on a month over month basis, up 0.9%. hottest going all the way back to march of '22, and if we look at x petroleum, comes down, not very much. up 0.7. hottest number since december of '22. if we look at import prices on a long-term basis year over year expecting up 0.4. almost triple up 1.1%. the hottest going back to -- you guessed it -- dec of '22. dec of '22. look at export prices on a month over month basis, expecting up 0.2. more than double. up half of 1%. hottest since february when it was up 0.7 and finally export prices year over year. expected to be down a little over 1%. finally comes close to expectations. down 1%. and down 1%, well, that, consider this.

the 15th consecutive negative month over month change on year over year export prices. that is a good thing. a good thing. last month moves from minus 1.4 to minus 1.6. so at least export prices are coming down a bit and most likely, as we continue to watch the give and take on global trade, we should keep in mind that countries outside the u.s. are starting to look a whole lot better. especially in the eurozone and to an extent the uk. we want to pay close attention to the numbers and implications what central banks will and currencies will do. 475. up about a basis points since numbers were up. means three basis points up on the session. ten year currently 434. up two basis points on the numbers and unchanged on the session. joe, back to you. >> yeah. that's -- got a, two basis

points unchanged. not sure there are too many surprises there, rick. bling in our own diana olick and steve liesman. diana, you first. >> good morning, joe. yeah. as rick said, on that housing starts and building permits number a huge miss but should come as no surprise. i'm not actually sure why the, the forecast were for an increase, because we saw mortgage rates in april go up over 7%, up to 7.5% and really stayed there for most of the month. we heard from the home builders even though they had a strong beginning to the spring market, they really started to see traffic die down a lot. home builders sentiment yesterday. the number came down out of positive territory into negative territory with buyer traffic being the worst read in that report. that's because they're not seeing people come in and saying they have to start with incentives again. it dialing back on incentives. on putting extras in and doing some of the mortgage rate buydowns. now they have to start to do it

again's you have mortgage rates over 7% not only are people shying away from buying but just not going to be able to afford it or even to qualify for that mortgage. when you break out single-family versus multifamily. single-family down on starts and permits. permits, of course, indicator of future construction. interesting on multifamily. saw a monthly jump in multifamily. these tend to be volatile numbers on multifamily. a couple big projects to skew the numbers one way or the other. we have a lot of supply and multifamily, but i will say rents started to tick up again. even with that new supply. so perhaps they're seeing down the road they're going to need more supply coming on. especially if people can't buy homes they're going to have to rent them. again, disappointing numbers on home builder, again, because of mortgage rates. bright side, we saw rates come down a bit. 6.99% on the 30-year fix you just under 7%. if we can hold back into the 6% range you might see these numbers come back.

builders feel better about it. right now not seeing the traffic. >> 6.99 a lot better than 7%. feel much better even at 6.99. >> it's psychological. >> it is. it's like, it's a sore. 6.99. i ain't paying 7%. what's up with you? >> well, i -- i think the jobless claims numbers, a good number. i would caution that the increase in jobless claims since the lag, start of the session. be a little careful with that. interested in downward revision in march for housing follows down revision for retail. march looking at the moment less strong than we thought it was. i don't know if you caught this yesterday. able to do an wrap it up, joe, towards end of the day. you're usually glued to your tv watching the afternoon coverage on cnbc. you're not smiling. >> no. yes, yeah! exactly. not baseball. >> what happened yesterday with

retail sales number, the good discussion we had yesterday, took flat retail sales together with the inflation number, and what's going on? downed revisions to q1 by 0.4 in the wrap it up. q2 remained strong. take it with a grain of salt. not much data on it. watching this ongoing debate betweenliesman, optimist, pessimists, whatever you wa unnt to call it. does lower activity bring less inflation? markets seem to believe that's the case right now. may end up wrong like they've been in the past and i get to interview tom barkley today from the fed and ask that question, but i will say everything i say about supply and demand has nothing to do with what diana was talking about.

housing market is so weird. >> glad you said, i get the interview. earlier you said, between liesman and santelli. using third person for yourself. >> you know who else does that? -- >> sticky's going to stay sticky. doesn't matter. >> going after trump. they're all -- you're using the third -- >> we think that we will be later going on a subway, down to the new york stock exchange where we will be sitting -- >> never -- rick, diana, and steve -- rick was still talking. >> said we got to go. i would love to t-- >> great respect. a good one. >> liesman has great respect. >> great respect. coming up after this, talking meme stocks. robinhood's keefe officer weighing in on return of new stock trade and walmart, stock jumping in the pre-market. up this morning over about 6% right now. you're watching quk x,"sawbo"

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meme stocks, and dom chu with a check how these names are doing. did you already talk about them in your stocks? doesn't matter. do it again. you're on again. more dom. >> i was going to do it before but wanted to focus on earnings for that last "mover." caught up on meme stocks now. cooled off significantly. the headline. gamestop down $39 per share. at one point tuesday in the pre-market session this was an $80 stock. to tell you how much things have cooled off in just a couple days' time. that's gamestop. show you what's happening with amc. similar-type story. at one point in the pre-market tuesday, currently at $5.21. this was north of $13 at one point in the earlier trade. just here on tuesday.

that's something to watch as well for amc. and then let's get you caught up on other names out there besides those that have been caught up in this kind of meme stock frenzy. besides gamestock and amc entertainment you have blackberry shares down one-third of 1%, $3.22. and on microcap. speakers headphone maker, worth about $45 million, $50 million. down 5%. sunpower caught up in a meme stock trade. although solar stories to go along with that. meme trades lower than a couple days ago. andrew, back to you. talking about meme stocks talk about return to the meme stock trade this week. seems to have meant a lot of business for trading platforms. including robinhood. joining us now robinhood's chief broker's officer team. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> trying to understand what you think happened this week. why this happened.

really, how much of this was driven by retail versus institutions? >> yeah. we just look at numbers, the last time the meme stocks had their rally, we're probably doing about, in our customer base, rear probably doing about a quarter of volume. at that point in time and not seeing -- >> which tells you, what? >> it tells me -- well a couple things it tells me. number one, if you think about all the people that came in to the market during that period, i mean, a huge, huge number of new market participants. >> right. >> at that point in time. they've grown up. we can see that in our data. 80% of those customers are still with us. >> uh-huh. >> but now are opening retirement accounts. looking for yield. you know. they're opening the credit card, get 3%. they've moved on with their life and they're sort of rounding out their investing experience. in this instance we did see our volume spike.

there still is interest in this. you know, there's interest in movement and volatility. that's really what it is. our two biggest days were not anything related to this. they were in video. video earnings and news. >> do you look at this as a positive thing or a -- >> i do. >> -- a negative thing for the marketplace? when you see stocks move like this. we were talking about sort of the integrity of the marketplace. genuine concern, things like this happen and not moving for fundamental reasons that it undermines that integrity? >> yeah. i think -- by the way, a good segment and i watched it. he made a couple points were really interesting. number of tradeable incidents is down dramatically. right? at the same time, we're at highest participation rate in the u.s. for households. so now you have more participants with furor instruments. right? it's naturally grog to lead to concentration in areas.

i would also say, even the number of people that came into the marketplace, you know, during covid and the gamestop era, those people are still in the marketplace. majority of them are still in the marketplace and now investing in a very different way. so the question always becomes, hey, we would all like -- we all think it's beneficial for every american to participate in the greatest creation in the world. how they get there, if it's through this -- >> it's if pure speculation and they lose. that's a problem. sometimes they leave. they don't say. >> yeah. >> which you see a gamestop move the way it does, or, you know, by the way, trump media company. a top ten stock. >> one of the top ten. i think number ten. >> number ten on your, on robinhood. i don't know what you think of that. do you say seems like a completely plausible valuation or do you say, this is insane.

the folks -- hard to tell your complaints they're not -- smart, but are they making a big mistake? >> here's the way i'd say it. if you think, like we can watch what they're doing with their portfolios. as i said, 80% of those in the marketplace are still with us. over two-thirds of the people that are even participating in gamestop, amc, ejt, they're long-term investors. so they're taking a small portion of their portfolio and saying, this is interesting. it's what everybody's talking about, and think of it as a trade? >> think of it as a trade. not an investment. not something -- they might -- you can, you looked at our ricks. they're not moving. core portfolio remain the most popular names that sit on that. >> when you said that -- they're acting differently this time.

it's like, yeah. a tenth of the money less than if they stayed in some of those names. right? >> yeah, but you have to make the assumption that's the only thing they were doing. >> right. >> yeah. but it's been -- >> been a lot of pain in the meme stocks. >> yeah. yep. >> what do you do with the clientele not a long-term investors in there making trades, you can tell, i assume, in their portfolio whether they think this is a long-term trade. if that's the case, is there different types of education? i know you have a whole bunch of educators on the site, but do you particularly, know -- send out a notification to one kind of client different than another kind of client? >> it's more on the instrument. >> right. >> so you'll see notices. a., this is a highly volatile stock, would you like tolearn about volatility what can happen with the moves? you can't be -- we wouldn't be speck for clients.

we would be specific for the securities. and anything that we're doing with those. i think that's probably the best methodology to ensure -- >> what's the correlation these days between what you see happening in the equity markets, nasdaq and the like, and bitcoin? for a long time, bitcoin and of other. i think they diverged a little bit here. >> they did diverge, and i don't think we've seen the same correlations, and so, obviously, we have a native crypto business, but we have the bitcoin etfs, and that was fascinating when those were first launched, because, you know, many, many customers took a very small portion of their portfolio, sold it, and bought one of the bitcoin etfs. >> they -- >> they aren't -- they aren't customers that are willing to be a native crypto investor, but they want crypto exposure, and that's even in a retirement account. >> have you seen any difference in terms of any big inflows from folks who are using your savings

account and the credit card? >> we've seen a large inflows across the board, and then the last quarter, and it's continuing right now, so we're taking -- >> is that moneythen getting invested? >> it is getting invested, yes. we're seeing large inflows from all of our major competitors. as we continue to enhance the offering and become -- and broaden it, you know, we're -- we've become a destination for a lot of the larger customers, and those customers are much larger than traditional robinhood customers. >> fair enough. steve, thank you for coming in this morning. >> thanks for having me. when we come back a lot more on "squawk." we're going to go inside walmart's earnings, talk about what drove its first quarter results, that stock moving much higher in the premarket on some upbeat guidance on what the future may hold for that company this year. look at the dow right now. we'll talk about thaanmo ene meack.d re ing at schwab is now powered by ameritrade, unlocking the power of thinkorswim, the award-winning trading platforms.

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♪ walmart gaining in the premarket on better than expected first quarter results and some pretty good guidance. for more, let's bring in retail

analyst at forester research. there's a couple of things we try to glean from this. one is, you know, just that walmart seems to be able to execute with this management team again and again, but also, we're trying to figure out the macro environment, which seems to, at the same time it plays into walmart, there is some signs of stress on the low end of things? >> right. they are certainly able to attract some of those more affluent consumers, but overall, the walmart numbers were pretty strong, definitely stronger than a number of other competitive retailers like target. its e-commerce numbers were actually, i would say, off the charts. they reported year over year ecom growth of more than 20%, which is higher than the industry is growing, and it was even higher than, i believe,

amazon's u.s. numbers. so, it's definitely picking up share. it also talked a lot about its amazon -- or its walmart ads business, which is also growing in the strong 20% level. its international numbers were pretty positive too at over 10%, so it is -- it had a great first quarter, and that is definitely because of a lot of these other businesses, not just what consumers themselves are purchasing. >> were you -- as far as the guidance, was it -- it was raised, obviously, and they were positive, but is it still conservative, do you think? >> well, it's definitely -- their numbers, i believe, are in the low to mid single digits is where they're speculating the rest of the year is going to shake out. it's higher than inflation, which suggests that they are certainly picking up transaction volume. they certainly picked up transaction volume this quarter.

but when i saw the numbers, it looked like it was a business that was looking for and more like amazon's business, a significant part of walmart's business now is coming from its third party marketplace, which is part of their e-commerce business, and their ads business, which is, of course, consumer packaged goods companies and other brands that sell at walmart, purchasing advertising to be in front of shoppers. so, those are definitely high-margin businesses. they are monetizing a lot of their foot traffic and the eyeballs to their website, and those are -- those are definitely parts of the playbook that some of these larger e-commerce behemoths have succeeded with, and now, walmart is just simply taking pages from those already very successful examples. >> it's gotten a little bit political. i'm talking about price increases passed along to consumers, and people have even

appealed to the big retailers to try to moderate increases and actually bring down prices to help people that are strapped. do you think -- is walmart done either? have they raised prices more than they should have or, for lack of a better term, for profiteering in an inflationary environment? are they able, at this point, to bring any prices down to help strapped consumers? or is it exactly what it is? >> i would not say that walmart is one of the companies that has been gouging consumers by any stretch of the imagination. i think that some of the other grocery chains have had some of that reputation. i think that even perhaps some of the specialty retailers may fall into that bucket. walmarthas really led on its everyday low price model. it's that edlp vision that has been part of the company's ethos for decades, and the truth is

that part of the growth and transaction volume is largely led not just because of that value equation but because consumers often do know where they can get the lowest price for milk or eggs or whatever commodities they're purchasing, and often, it is going to be a company like walmart, as well as, you know, there are other players that are in that bucket too that are trying to win on value. but certainly, i would say that walmart is not one of those violators. >> very good. thank you. appreciate it. and we'll see you again soon. if i say elp to you, do you -- does it mean anything? she said everyday low prices. >> yeah. >> doesn't mean anything? >> doesn't. >> elp? >> no. >> there you go. >> emerson lake and palmer. >> that's what you think? >> that's what everybody thinks of a certain age.

the guy in the -- final check on the markets. we are up a little bit today. two great days that we've seen so far. maybe cooler inflation. not a lot happening today in the meme stocks. what did we decide? why they go up or why they go down, people like to do a trade. >> they like a trade. >> at least it moderated a little. join us tomorrow. becky will be back. "squawk on the street" is next. ♪ good thursday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street," i'm carl quintanilla with jim cramer at post nine of the new york stock exchange. faber's on assignment. premarket is pretty steady as the bulls look to defend these all all-time highs. we're on dow 40k watch. our road map begins with rally mode. s&p eyes its 24th record close of the year. walmar