don't even know what he did for a living, but i do know the finals that he helped me and my -- do -- the times that he helped me and my brother or that we would come up short of the fees to play football, he all reached in his pocket. he would fill out paperwork to get insurance, he went out and found the coaches, you know? there were numerous ground breaking ceremonies for the boys and girls club. a bunch of politicians would come in, make speeches and break it back up. here's one of the events where i stood next to mr. carter, and the cameras and the politicians would leave, but i always had faith that he would be there, and he would never give up on the kids in the community. and every community, in my opinion, needs a many carter. if we had that, we'd be a better nation. shout out to all those who volunteer and help the young in their communities. lauren simonetti for liz claman. lauren: and i like seeing pictures of you when you were younger, charles. charles: thank you. lauren: have a good weekend.

it is a pit of a freak key friday in the markets. i am lauren simonetti in for liz claman. let's begin with a fox market alert. look here, you can see stocks searching for direction all day, switching between red and green. right now the dow is up 80 to points, near the highs of the session. the s&p 500 is fractionally higher, not even a point. the nasdaq is lower by 2426 -- 26, and the russell 2000 is down by 2.5. we are within reach of records for all three of the major indices. right now the dow needs to close higher by more than 38 points. it will then finish at a record high. it did cross 40,000 yesterday but has yet to finish bo that level. as for the s&p 500, the broader market needs to gain 11 points for its record close, and the nasdaq needs to finish up by 44. of course, anything can happen in this final hour of trade, and since we're coalescing right near those record highs, we'll be monitoring it the whole time. let's take a look at the week.

really great week. each index up over 1. make that 2% for the nasdaq. for the dow, on pace for a fifth straight positive week of. the s&p 500 and the nasdaq are both on track for their fourth. con sec delaware winning weeks -- consecutive. the reason is renewed hopes for a fed rate cut, but today michelle bowman threw cold water on it and said she's willing to hike rates if inflation progress stalls or even reverses. and then there's earnings. so far so good, and investors are as also preparing to hear from all of these names next week, but a.i. darling nvidia, that report cared comes on wednesday. then you have retailers lowe's, target, tj, and, the parent of tj maxx and marshalls, macy's and bj's also reporting. how is the consumer holding up, and what do they -- where do the that they go when inflation is still here? straight to the floor show, chief investment officer skyler -- and fit gerald group

president keith fitz-gerald joining us now. gentlemen, thank you. keith, all this optimism about a rate cut, there's a 70% chance now that the first cut is in the month of september. you buy that? >> i think that's aggressive, but you know what? i'll take it. that's like going to the casino, only this time you're betting on the race after it's occurred. lauren: i wonder how much it matters, skyler, and i say this because the c everything o of blackrock said to bloomberg. he said, quote, people or who are mt. middle to higher income are now getting a big benefit from high interest rates. and those are the people that spend on services, as in they have disposable income, and that income is chasing services. so he says that a rate cut would tame inflation. do you buy that? >> no. that a made no sent to me. if those folks are saving currently, they are in high interest rate cds, bank

accounts, money market funds. if you raise rates, it's going to encourage them to save more, and if you lower rates, it's going to encourage them to spend more. that's the reason -- that's why that interest rate marker is there, is to push people to save or push people to spend. lauren: yeah. you know, walmart was the star of this week with. their earning report was just spectacular. they're attracting because of their low prices the lower income consumer but also the higher income folks too. keith, we hear from the next week target, we've got tjx, bj's. do you think they will do okay, or do you think there will be a new set of troubles that we'll see as the consumer is still battling high prices? >> you know, honestly, lauren, that's a really tough call. it's a sharp question. because even within the retail sector, not all of these stores are the same. walmart if has a very different consumer profile, a very different managerial approach, a very different shopping demographic.

i think we've seen the information we want to see out of walmart. the question is what gremlins are are in the closet e when the rest of the retail environment shows up. lauren: same question to you, or skyler. is the consumer holding up, or does it depend on which retailer, or which company you're looking at? >> broadly are speaking, the consumer's doing great. lauren: okay. >> we have $40 trillion in wealth creation since 2020. but most of that wealth creation's coming from the stock market and u.s. real estate. about $20 trillion apiece. so, broadly speaking, we're in a really, really good spot. but it's very wisconsin fur candidated. -- bifurcated. so the wealthy folks that are in a home that are invested in the stock market, they are flush with cash, you know? they're flying first class versus economy. but those folks that aren't invested in the stock market and may not if be homeowners or are representers, they're not doing that great -- renters. inflation is really sting thing their a paycheck.

lauren: yeah. when you look at a it, keith, you know, most people are pretty sour on the economy and the process -- prospect for the economy. yet we're talking about dow 40,000. we hit it. can we close there? it's entirely possible. how do you, you know, circle the square? >> oh, boy, you know, again, this is something we do every single day. you want to focus on the companies that are going to be there, the companies hard capable of pulling us into the future that's rushing towards us. not stuff that's in the rearview mirror. so that involves a change in thinking, it involves taking a deep breath, not trying to guess the unguess,. so to me, tech is still where you want to be. you want to look at how that's going to trickle into other areas of our economy. this is the consistent with other great transitions in human history, electricity, steam, penicillin. anytime we've seen this flush change in humanity, we've seen the economy shift as well. i think we're are living through that right nows which is why so many people are struggling with it. lauren: yeah. and i'd be remiss, skyler, if i didn't want get in the meme

stock mania. i'm prepared to say it's over. it came up again for the first time in three years on monday and tuesday. you had these huge gains. and then it's fizzled since. if you look at gamestop, just to give you per peck if bion the volatility, one week ago shares were $17. a few day ago they hit a high of nearly $65, and now they're around $20. skyler, is it good news that this meme mania has died down? is that more rational for investors? with go ahead. >> i think it's good news generally that focus can focus again on fundamentals and value, so to speak, but i don't think it's bad news that there's liquidity, that there's zero-day options, that you can trade bitcoin any second of the day. and i'm not sure if it's good or bad really if we move towards that, but that's really what the market is sewing is, is that there is still a lot of money to be spent whether it's from home equity, whether it's consumer balance sheet, or corporate balance sheets, that there is $6

trillion sitting on the sidelines in money markets. so that $1 trillion that might move away, that might move a gamestop the or amc, you know, i think that keeps the short sellers kind of in the closet, and i think the it points to folk ifs really looking at, hey, look, we're going to be pretty good for the next couple years. the economy's great. folks have money to spend generally, and so i think you can be long and look for good stock gain for the next couple years. lauren: yeah. and it's just exciting too. skyler, keith, thank you so much for the time. >> thank you. haarp lauren let's look at tilray, the marijuana stock. it's only at $1.96 a share. it did announce a share offering plan worth $250 million. tilray issued the filing after of the department of justice said it would formally start the reclassification process for cannabis. well, marijuana is right now a schedule i drug. that means t in the same exact

category as a fentanyl and heroin. if the reclassification goes through, cannabis would be under the schedule iii category putting it in the same class as ketamine and recognizing its medicinal uses. here's the president, president biden, yesterday. >> today's announcement builds on the work we've already done to a pardon a record number of federal offenses for simple possession of marijuana. no one should be in jail for using or possessing marijuana, period. far too many lives have been upended because of the failed approach to marijuana, and i'm committed the right those wrongs. lauren: and joining us now in a fox business exclusive is true leaf ceo kim rivers. kim, thank you for coming on. look, this reclassification is good news for the industry, for the stock prices. why? >> yeah. so really the rescheduling from a i to a iii has a couple of primary impacts. one, it's going to absolutely open the door to additional research and drug development which is very competing as we

think about the future of medical uses for cannabis across the u.s. secondly, for our company and for others like us, it will immediately have the effect of removing the 2800e tax burden on our organization. so his -- historically, we've had to pay 70% -- lauren: 70? >> 7-0. in q1 it was $46 million for trulieve specifically. is with the removal of that burden, we, of course, will have a lot more optionality to reinvest into growth. lauren: so this potential reclassification from for to -- or i to iii save you $170 million? >> $175 million annually. lauren: wow with. and when do you expect this to go through? i'm saying a that because i know we're in an election year, or and cannabis probably pulls in some of the younger voters. do you expect this to go through anytime soon? >> absolutely. we're in the middle of a very

specific process that's outlined, and it was kicked off by president biden two years ago. and if so we are in in midst of that process, and actually today the announcement of the formal rulemaking was filed in the federal registrar. and so that moves us to a 60-day window for public comment and then a final rule will be issued. so we are in the home stretch and, you know, it's not lost on me that it perhaps coincides with the election. but, hey, that's okay. we'll take it. lauren: in the home stretch. i'm going to ask the control room to pull up a map that we have, and on the map are blue states, that's where marijuana if is medically legal. and the green is where it's legal recreationally. if you count them, that's 37 states. that's more than half the country. yet at the federal level, marijuana is not legal. your thoughts. >> yeah. i mean, i think this is a growing divide between state policy and really the will of the people in those states and the federal government. i mean, cannabis has been a

state-by-state fight and battle, and we're going to continue that fight. the good news here is that thousands and thousands, actually hundreds of thousands, millions of americans now have access to legalized cannabis. in our home state of florida, there's an adult use amendment on the ballot this november. to put that into perspective, that could go from $2 billion to $6 billion with 21 million folks and 138 million tourists. and under the fundamentals of the cannabis market, they continue to grow despite the fact that we have had to handcuff our efficiencies by the federal government. trulieve posted growth all the way down 201% -- 21% growth and that, again, is with that tax burden. this was just early innings is and just the beginning for the cannabis market in the u.s., and do our days are ahead of us but, man, we sure could use a little help from the federal governmen. lauren: but, kim, what do you do

with the black market? because people are finding it easier and much cheaper to buy marijuana if on the black market. >> well, i would say that depends, and that depends on your state. i do think folks are becoming more and more educated at the risk of black market cannabis. unfortunately, we've had a number of deaths and reports. actually, the d everything a just issued its report, its annual report listing substances like fentanyl and meth which are used as additives into the street cannabis all the time. so i do think as the public become withs more educated and as access to regulated, tested and safe products become withs more available, we'll continue to see that shift. look, this is really no different than alcohol and the end of prohibition in alcohol. again, hopefully, our federal government will understand the health and safety concerns of its citizens and embrace the legal cannabis market in a more meaningful way. lauren: kim rivers, you're

bringing your legal are expertise to the industry too. it's a hot to follow. kim rivers, thank you. >> thanks. lauren: and coming up, peloton once tried to buy a fitness company that was backed by superstar athletes, hollywood a-listers travis kelce, justin timberlake, kevin hart, but now hydro is taking them on one stroke at a time. the hydro founder is here to tell us why he passed on a tie-up with peloton and how he plans to win the fitness regatta. it's a fox business exclusive. take a look here though, poll on the -- peloton is down more than 40% in the last year. "claman countdown" coming right back. ♪ (grandpa vo) i'm the richest guy in the world. hi baby! (woman 1 vo) i have inherited the best traditions. (woman 2 vo) i have a great boss... it's me. (man 1 vo) i have people, people i can count on. (man 2 vo) i have time to give (grandma vo) and a million stories to share.

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lauren: peloton is doing some

heavy lifting when it comes to tackling its debt load. reports are the connected fitness company has hired jpmorgan to raise which $850 million in order to refinance existing debt. the pandemic darling is down -- look at that -- almost 58% this year and down from, what was it, over $160 a share at the height of the pandemic. now it's at $3.96. when it tried -- tried the acquire a connecteded rowing company, hydro, it did not succeed. hydro has taken a major stake in a strength training company, and that company is called speed fitness. it's backed by celebrities including travis kelce, kevin hart, lizzo, aaron rodgers and joining me now is hydro founder bruce smith. bruce, welcome. >> very good to be here. lauren: you know, i feel like fitness is very trendy, right? if. >> uh-huh. lauren: how do you have staying power in such a fickle environment? >> so the quites really did -- the united states really did start on their fitness journey

with a whole bunch of fads, and i think what's happened over the past i would say, like, 10 years and thanks in large part to peloton is people really are in the pandemic, they're so aware that they need to stay healthy the a successful life. health is wealth, you know? like the requested that you can be really successful in the united states, the marker for that used to be a fancy car. now it's being with healthy -- lauren: really? >> being 75 years old and move around really comfortably. i see that driving our business. we hear it from our customers all the time. lauren: i used to think a nice car was a mid-life crisis. [laughter] it is perhaps one of your rowing machines that retails for as much as a $4,000 a mid-life crisis? >> i don't think it's a crisis, i think it's a step in the right direction -- lauren: to not have a crisis. >> exactly. it really is for your whole family. and when you think about the investment you're making, say you use it and it costs you about $100 a month. think about that investment. so it's for your whole family. classes that serve everybody

from yoga to rowing, we teach you everything you need to know, or and above all you're investing in something that's going to deliver rewards not just through that 20 minutes of your workout, but through the whole day. charles: lauren: so rowing is 70% cardio, 30% strength -- >> who told you that? lauren: i think you did. and you have a stake in speede, which is a weight training company. and i'm putting emphasis on weight, because people are trying to lose weight. they're taking to semipick-like drugs, but they're also losing muscle if mass. is that why weight training is popular? >> so there are two things -- the science hasn't changed. what has changed is that people understand now. lauren: okay. >> so the first thing you need to be healthy a good cardiovascular system. your heart and your lungs need to work well. the next hinge you need -- thing you need is to main tear your -- maintain your lean muscle mass. speede has a revolutionary product if similar to other

strength machines, but variable resistance through each repetition allows you to accomplish your strength training in a lot more efficient time period, so it takes less time. just like rowing is the most efficient aerobic exercise, speede offers the most efficient strength exercise. you put them together, and we believe they're the best offering in the marketplace. lauren: have you considered a public offering? >> we have. we went down the road. i used to get a call -- for a while it was a call every two days -- lauren: really? >> yeah. and eventually -- lauren: you said no. >> so we went down the road, we did all of the work to become a public company. we invested and we currently operate at public company levels. we did not do a spac. we were seen, you know, our timing was really fortunate because we were able to see how the spac market is really not holding up the way we expected it to, so we pivoted to a private raise, and we are still preparing the company, and that is the long-term goal. we really want to ring that

bell. lauren: why did you say no to peloton? they probably wanted your rowing machine because they had the treadmill and the bike. >> the bike. so john foley, they all came to boston and visited our office, they looked at our prototype. i'm very proud that they went home and copied it. [laughter] they did make an offer for the company -- lauren: but it was too low. >> you know, we have a lot of confidence. the thing is, like, everybody wants to feel great with their life. that is not going to change. also people are going to go to the gyms. traffic is way up this year. of course it's up after the pandemic. but it doesn't change the fact that work out at home is the most convenient thing you can do, and keeping that north star and delivering the best experience, something we believe is very valuable. lauren: how many days a week do you work out? >> six. at least. sometimes seven. three days of strength, three days of aerobic. many all a honesty, i was off the wagon, i was once or twice a week, but i'm back on it, it's been two years.

lauren:ed good for you. bruce smith, thank you very much is. nice to see you. it's like the super bowl coming to town. we're headed to the historic north wilkesboro speedway in north carolina ahead of tomorrow's nascar all-star race. and madison alworth is talking to the drivers, the fans and business owners about a what the race means to them and the local economy. and starting next week the fox business rundown makes its debut. yes, liz claman and other fox business stars will bring you a biweekly podcast to get you caught up on the latest developments in the financial world and what it means for your wallet. monday, may 20th, it kicks off. drops every monday and friday. go to fox business pod californias.com.. -- podcasts.com. apple, spotify or wherever you download your favorite podcasts. dow's up 97. ♪ i know, i've bee telling everyone. baby: liberty. oh! baby: liberty. how many people did you tell? only pay for what you need.

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t. rowe price ♪ ♪ lauren: start your engines. this sunday is nascar drivers will be racing to the checkered flag at the historic north wilkesboro speed ifway in north carolina and the nascar cup series all-star race. north carolina's entire were economy always seems to come out on top. the 2023 race increased north carolina's economy by $42.4 million, that comes from the governor's office, and it generated 29 million in visitor spending and led to over $20 million in direct construction and infrastructure investment for the county specifically. fox business' madison alworth is

on the track with more. madison. if. >> reporter: lauren, you laid it out. i mean, there was such an investment in this historic track because it is race weekend. maas -- nascar is back. these cup drivers are going to be taking to the track on sunday in order to win $1 million if. but before they do that, i was actually able to jump on the track with one of those drives -- drivers. we hit 100 miles per hour, and we talked about the importance of being on this historic track. oh, or my god. [laughter] you're going to be racing this on sunday, hopefully twice. how does it feel on on it? >> yeah, or it's so cool. what people don't realize when they hear about north wilkesboro, there was trees growing out of this place just a few years ago. >> reporter: yeah right. >> i heard about it when i was a kid or, but it was so long before my time being in the sport. so being able to say i've raced

here at the new version of it and how they've revibed this mace is just so dang cool. >> reporter: yeah. so, i ap mean, this track was alive and well before nascar even started, and it was part of the first official cup series in 1949. but then it sat vacant for 26 years. seine wasn't kidding, there were literally weeds growing out of the track, so a ton of work had to be to done. they really worked hard to build it up to what it is today, and and as you mentioned, they've a really seen the are return. last year nascar came back for the first time, and that one race weekend had an economic impact of $42 million. they're expecting the same this year if not even more. and part of the reason is because fans from all over the country and, frankly, the world come in for events like this. this weekend there's going to be 48 different states represented, 8 different countries all descending on will with, county

here in north carolina, the small town of north wilkesboro really reaping the benefits of such an infusion of people, cash, hotels, stores. all of that is going to be really packed to the brim this weekend. and when it comes to the track itself for these drivers, and we've had the chance to chat with some of them, because of the rich history of this track, it's such an exciting place for them to be. and this is home. most of them live here in north carolina. so they're driving maybe an hour to get here. i'm excited to be here, but if you can't be here yourself, catch it on sunday, 8 p.m. eastern on fs1. it's going to be live there. it's going to be the quite the weekend, but i'm excited to see it in person. lauren, i'm going to send it back to you. lauren: absolutely. madison aal worth, thank you very much. and a reminder once again that the nascar all-star race is, as a madison said, there you go, guys, sunday, 8:00 eastern on fs1. we have a fox business alert, take two interactive shares hire after reporting stronger than expected bookings

during its fiscal fourth quarter. the stock barely higher by a dollar despite news that the company does not expect the new grand theft the auto game to launch now until the fall of 2025. reddit surging after the social media company announced a partnership with openai. reddit will gain certain artificial intelligence features through the deal. it's a licensing deal. while opena a i will have access to reddit's content and user conversations using all of that to train a.i. models. that is valuable. the stock surging 11. advanced micro devices trading up on a reuters report that microsoft is planning to offer amd a.i. chips to customers as an alternative to nvidia. the report said microsoft will provide details at its build developer conferences which is next week. shares of cracker barrel tumbling after the restaurant chain cut its dividend by 80%. it's going there from $1.30 a share to 25 cents. the company needs to shore up

capital to support a rebrand and a turn-around. stock's down 14%. well, dangers on the red sea forcing a major change of course for energy shippers. the ceo of ten limited is here to tell us what war in the middle east means for one of the biggest operators of oil, lng and product tankers. it's a fox business exclusive. let's check the dow right now on the heat map. 39,97 -- 39,973 is the overall level. about two-thirds of stocks in the green, about one-third in the red. amgen down despite really positive news from the fda on one of its cancer drugs for lung cancer. stock's down $2 right now. it's the biggest drag. "claman count countdown" coming right back. ♪ >> finish

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lauren: yemen's houthi rebels is say they shot down an american drone today just one day after the iran-backed group warned all ships heading toes israeli ports, not just those in the red sea, will be targeted. they're threatening to extend attacks in what they say is a campaign of solidarity with palestinians. their aggression has forced many shipping companies to completely reroute their normal routes,

especially for energy. get this, since mid january not a single liquified natural gas tanker has passed through the narrow strait at at the southern end of the red sea. i want to bring in the founder and ceo of ten limited, one with of the world's largest independent transporters of energy, ten has stopped the transiting in the reed sea altogether because it's experienced incidents in the black sea too. so problems in the red sea, the black sea, the latter related to the russia-ukraine war. nico joins me now, thanks for coming on. congratulations, by the way, your stock is at a 5-year high. >> yes, we just broke $30, and we're actually on the same boat trying to get the dow jones is to break 40,000 today. lauren: and, you know, you have this added pressure of how do you get your energy, your oil, your lng to where it needs to go when you can't get through a

main corridor, so you're rerouteing, adding 70% more time to do that. >> exactly. lauren: does that mean more money in your pocket? >> well, it creates more ton miles, more demand for what we do, for the services we provide. however still the cost of energy transportation is minute in comparison to what the product is worth. one of our very large crude carriers carries 2 million barrels of oil, that's an approximate cost of the cargo of $160 million, and actually to transport if this you have less than 2 or 3% of that. lauren: okay. so let's look at the red line there. as you're increasing the cost of getting goods, getting oil from asia, you know, all the way to europe with, a 15-day trip now -- which is a green line -- become as 35-day trip which is the red line. that's a big deal. a that's a huge deal. how do you function in an environment like this?

>> well, right now, as we said, the boom that we are experiencing in energy transportation is more as you rightly said the supply-driven boom. there's not enough, this is demand there. demand has reached, the pre-covid period we're in excess of 100 million barrels of demand a day. at the same time, there are not enough vessels out there to service -- lauren: well, that's a big deal. you can't just order, get, make more vessels because there's a lot of confusion in the industry about the engine of the vessel. >> exactly. we're going through a second structural change in our business. way before you can remember, in the 1990s, we had the change of the double-double design of the ship. you had the exxon valdez accident back in alaska which created the design of a new structure vessel. that cost the industry $45 billion at the time, and ten, we were the first company to comply with this regulation are. right now, by 2030 we have a new

regulation that has to do with the environmental print of the engines, and we are working together with energy manufacturers to be able to achieve this by 2030, and that's why -- >> [inaudible] >> well, i think it's going to be high task, but, you know, we are actually not against the current time wise, but we are making progress. we just took delivery of six and one more later this month, seven, environmentally-friendly since the beginning of the year -- lauren: it's not only environmentally-friendly, it's compliant if to the rules and regular rayings which come at what cost to you? >> well, the cost is at least another 20-30% additional cost to the new -- of the ship if it was a convention alves el. lauren: you got a lot of problems. [laughter] your stock is up4% this year, 72% in the past one year. >> and, yeah.

we celebrated our 30th year as a public company last year, so it was good to break $30 this morning. lauren: congratulations. >> thank you. thank you very much. lauren: anything you want to add? >> as i said, i think the cost of energy transportation is still very small part, it plays very little influence into inflation going forward. lauren: can this be the new normal? the way you're doing things now, do you see it resecretting to the way it was -- resetting to the way before october 7th, before russia invaded ukraine? >> well, deep inside as human beings with young kids around, you know, we always do we wish to go back to where we were. the shipping actually flourishes when you have open seas. no protectionism, no wars, you know? it's -- we are the -- of the world economy, and we don't want to have blockages in the arteries. so i hope we can go back there. but as far as supply, with we to not see this being changing

before 2028 because really there are no ways or no shipyards that could provide more supply of ships. so we're looking to, the i would say, a rosier picture for the next couple of years. lauren: niko, thanks very much for the time. up next, former president donald trump embracing cryptocurrencies on the campaign april, and our next guest says he already learned the nickname the crypto president. the former cftc chairman psychiatrist giancarlo is here -- chris january car low is here to tell us what happens to crypto if donald trump wins a second term in the white house. we'll be right back. ♪ g to self) about our honeymoon. what about africa? safari? hot air balloon ride? swim with elephants? wait, can we afford a safari? great question. like everything, it takes a little planning. or, put the money towards a down-payment... ...on a ranch ...in montana ...with horses let's take a look at those scenarios. j.p. morgan wealth management has advisors in chase branches and tools,

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lauren: former president donald trump spark excitement in the clip doe world last week -- crypto world after announcing he would embrace the use of cryptocurrency if he is elected in november. crypto participants took to x to share their optimism that trump could help propel the industry forward, but my next guest says trump already laid the groundwork for crypto to go mainstream e, and he did that during his first year in office. bitcoin right now, $of 67,000. it is up sharply today. joining us now in another fox fox business with exclusive is chris january car low --

giancarlo or, author of the book crypto dad. thanks for joining us. >> wonderful to be with you, lauren are. thank you. lauren: so it seems like you think president trump is better for cryptocurrency than president biden. i guess the question why is president biden so bad for crypto? >> welsh you know, or presidents get credit for when things go right during their administration and criticized when things go badly. during the very first year of the trump administering, the u.s. commodity futures trading commission green lighted the world's first regular rahlated market for any type of crypto derivatives, this was bitcoin futures, and the united states' first regulated market for any type of crypto. six years later that marketplace is deep, it's liquid, it's transparent, and it's very well regulated and relatively free of fraud and manipulation. of all sam bankman's empire, the one piece that didn't pail was the piece under cftc regulation. what the cftc did under that

paris year of the trump administration demonstrated that american regulators, in fact, regulators anywhere in the world, can engage successfully with crypto, can put regulatory regimes in place about crypto is and do do it successfully. and so is i think as the president under whose watch this occurred, credit is due. lauren: and what has happened now? >> well, in the last really 24 months we've seen a real, i'd say, almost regression in sort of the left wing of the democrat party. it's not across the board. there's a lot of very strong democrats in favor of smart crypto regulation. but elizabeth warren and others have declared war on crypto. they're going to assemble an anti-crypto army, and i think that's frozen innovation in place here in the united states because of the regulatory uncertainty. and what we're seeing is a lot of smart innovators, innovators that want to do the right thing, are moving offshore rather than here in the united states. lauren: where is offshore primarily.

>> in the far east, in japan, in singapore, in the middle east. even in europe. i travel a lot in my work. i have very good relations with the former regulators abroad that i used to work with, and all of them tell me they see this as the opportunity to get the jump on the united states. lauren: is one reason that this administration is more anti-crypto is because it's so energy, it requires so much energy to mine for bitcoin, for instance? >> you know, i've heard that sate said, but it never seems to be the core of their resis sans -- resistance. look, up until recently the resistance used to be somewhat generational. i think a younger generation that grew up in a networked world intuitively understand the notion of networking finance and networking systems of value. lauren: yeah. >> but an older generation across the board that grew up in a more if traditional world of paper checks and branch banking have really struggled to accept this innovation. why this left wing of the democrat party have been so resistant, development9 really

know. i'll tell you what, i think that is breaking down. in the last few years, just in the last 24 hours, a mayor vote took place in congress. and the number of democrats broke ranks and and voted for the repeal offing something called staff accounting bulletin 121 which was put out by the sec which was really very harsh and restrictive on banks getting engaged with crypto. lauren: they couldn't be custodians. >> they couldn't be custodians under that rule, and that rule was doing without going through what we call the administrative procedures act. so both on a procedural grounds and on substantive grounds, it was really restrikive to american innovation, and i'm very pleased to see that we've got bipartisan majorities in both houses resisting that innovation. i think that's now going to be a step forward in breaking this deadlock that's been in place so that america can resume its rightful role and, hopefully, a nonpartisan, nonpolitical role as a leader of this innovation.

lauren: thank you so much for coming on. next week the full house votes on the first regulatory frame work for cryptocurrency; is that correct? >> the 21st century bill. lauren: hard to keep track of all this. >> it is. stay tuned, it'll be a big story. lauren: christian giancarlo, thank you very much. 13 points away for the first ever potential 40,000 close for the dow jones industrial average. it's up 117 points right now. not at 40,000 yet but of course we're going to watch it tick by tick. reminder on the week, all three major averages are higher and it'll be five straight winning weeks for the dow, four in a row for the nasdaq and s&p. nasdaq up over 2% this week and nvidia reports on wednesday. that's a big one. donald trump is not the only getting behind crypto. our next guest recommends adding the asset class to portfolio. it's george ball, chairman of sanders morris, the company

manages $4.9 billion in assets. george, god to see you. why do you like crypto? >> good to be on, lauren. lauren: of course. >> i'm clearly from the older generation. the dow in fact was 600 when i stastarted in the business. lauren: it was 600? >> on the path and the biggest owners of crypto are people in brazil and argentina and india, in other nations why inflation and political repression are fallen and not just here in the u.s. but around the world for there's a worry about the basement of the currency, which is added to a speculative desire thinking that bitcoins or other crypto cans go up and up and occupy and it's a prudent part of his or her port knoll owe in cryptocurrencies and felt that

way for several years and it's really quite true today. you're better off having some, not too much, but some money in cryptos than none. lauren: which cryptos? >> i would be boaring and own bitcoin or fidelity or blackrock crypto and don't have to think. there's a lot to be said about that and express ratios are low. be boaring and be safe. lauren: you told me you're old and boaring and you know what, i love you, sir. let's also talk about another one of your picks: quantas services. a power company. >> a wise investor and marty said the way to make money is to invest in the stocks of companies that are suppliers and adding more electricity to fuel

a and i recollects don't build plans to put their capacity themselves and contract it out. the quanta services is the prototype of the company that builds capacity for electric utilities and i live in texas. the texas power grid is stretched thin no matter what to provide the extra power for the utilities and supply it to the ai companies. means quant a and other companies that build it are not as expensive as ai itself or on a relative basis many of the underlying utilities. suppliers to utilities. lauren: what about park hotels? >> the rates are too high and room rates being charged, especially the luxury ones and park hotels owns and they're going higher and hi higher and

higher and basically 100% addition to the bottom line of profit of park hotels and other companies in the business. lauren: 45 seconds and end of the week and dow jones is 39,996. we can get to 40,000 and you and i old boring, sir, can be on the air when it happens. 40,000. 30 seconds to the closing well. >> whole lot higher than when i started and probably going higher, lauren. lauren: 20 seconds and anything can happen, folks. we have to wait for numbers to settle but this could be the first ever record close above 40,000, 10 seconds till the end of a wonderful trading week. record high for the dow jones industrial average. kudlow is next