Dow Touches Fresh Record To Start 2nd Half… And A Big Bull Case On Strategy 7/1/26

Summary

CNBC "Fast Money" Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Dow Touches Fresh Record To Start 2nd Half… And A Big Bull Case On Strategy
Date: July 1, 2026
Host: Melissa Lee
Panel: Tim Seymour, Karen Feiderman, Bono Ison, Stu Kaiser (Head of US equity trading strategy at Citi)
Special Guests: Steve Liesman (CNBC Senior Economics Reporter), Julia Boorstin (CNBC Tech Reporter), Mark Palmer (Benchmark Stone X)

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Episode Overview

This episode kicks off the second half of 2026 with the Dow touching a fresh all-time high. The discussion focuses heavily on the upcoming June jobs report, implications for Fed policy, and the debate of whether "good news" on employment might actually be "bad news" for the overheated market. The roundtable also explores the latest in tech, retail, and payments, including Meta's move into cloud, Nike's volatile stock action, the bullish outlook on Strategy (bitcoin proxy), and the enduring appeal of "Dividend Kings." Analyst Mark Palmer joins with a striking bull case for Strategy, while the desk debates market leadership and opportunities amid macro uncertainty.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Jobs Report Preview & Fed Outlook

Main Debate:

• Will a “hot” jobs number force the Fed’s hand on rates, and is that negative for markets?
• “Could good news for the economy mean bad news for the markets?”

Fed Watch

• Tim Seymour (02:36):

  • Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s tone is cautious; no clear rate direction yet.
  • The jobs market is the “wheelhouse” for Fed focus.
  • “If we saw a 180 or God forbid, a 250 payroll number tomorrow…markets would get a little skittish. But let's be clear, the economy is not overheating.”

• Melissa Lee (04:06):

  • Wonders if even “better than expected” jobs reports give Fed leeway to hike again.

• Karen Feiderman (04:39):

  • Inflation is weighing heavier than employment in the Fed’s dual mandate:
    • “To me, the inflation part is much more important.”

• Stu Kaiser (05:17):

  • Don’t fear strong job numbers as an equity investor:
    • “Unapologetically, good news is good news from an equity perspective.”
  • The macro view on AI’s economic impact has shifted to being more inflationary; Fed hikes won’t deter hyperscaler CapEx.

• Bono Ison (06:23):

  • Jobs’ market data would need a huge deviation from expectations to move markets meaningfully.

Steve Liesman Segment

• Steve Liesman (08:11):

  • The current scenario is a “high class problem” for the Fed—strong jobs let them focus on fighting inflation.
  • “Maybe it's a little hot, maybe it's a little, it cools down a little bit. Tomorrow is a really good way for the Fed to say you know what, I can focus on the inflation side of the mandate.”

• Fed balance sheet: Warsh wants to reduce slowly, cautiously (09:48).

• Notable Quote:

  • “Don't mess with Mother Nature, don't mess with the balance sheet” (09:48 – Steve Liesman).

Communication & Fed Transparency

• Fed could communicate less, potentially reducing volatility—but panel split on if that’s true (15:35).
• Stu Kaiser (14:53):
  • Less Fed communication will make hard data more important, like jobs days.
• Karen Feiderman (15:35):
  • Doesn’t think less communication increases volatility:
    • “If we have someone come out every week that could cause some sort of volatility one way or another every single week.”
• Tim Seymour (16:16):
  • More Fed in markets has historically been equity positive; Warsh’s “less Fed” approach may be less so.

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2. Market Movers & Sector Check-ins

Nike's Wild Ride (17:16)

• Tim Seymour:

  • “Numbers weren’t that bad,” but macro and sportswear saturation remain big issues.
  • Volatility largely due to overreaction, not fundamentals.

• Bono Ison:

  • Notes short capitulation after earnings and that reversal is often a first step to positive action.

• Karen Feiderman:

  • She’s out of Nike, frustrated by stagnation, prefers Gap’s potential if they spin off athletic division.

Meta’s AI Cloud Pivot (22:13)

• Julia Boorstin (22:24):

  • Meta is advancing plans to offer AI compute to external customers, positioning itself to compete with Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and new-age names like CoreWeave.

• Karen Feiderman (25:15):

  • Glass half-full: this pivot could improve cash flow and justify high CapEx.
    • “If they can address that with something that improves cash flow...”

• Tim Seymour (26:02):

  • “Meta’s ‘year of efficiency,’ part two…they’re not stepping away from AI, just optimizing.”

• Stu Kaiser (26:51):

  • “The bottlenecks [in AI compute] are real, and they're really long…have to own them. Companies are getting creative.”

Affirm’s Comeback (29:57)

• Karen Feiderman (30:12):

  • “It’s a popular way to buy now…the forward payment method is smarter for some people.”
  • A wild ride, but still likes the business even if it’s less cheap now.

• Bono Ison (31:11):

  • Says stock is “a little stretched;” notes Walmart switched to Klarna, which could indicate vendor relationship risk.

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3. Dividend Kings: Panel’s Picks (32:24)

Criteria: Companies with >50 years of consecutive dividend hikes.

• Karen Feiderman:
  • Picks Lowe’s—housing market improvements favor home retailers:
    • “If the housing bill passes…this is great for a Home Depot and a Lowe’s.”
• Bono Ison:
  • Johnson & Johnson—stability over growth:
    • “My primary concern is making sure that dividend is going to remain intact…it's slow, boring if you will. But I'm not worried about this dividend going away.”
• Stu Kaiser:
  • Utilities—thinks Power Gen buildout makes the sector attractive for yield and upside.
• Tim Seymour:
  • Altria—“Feels like a utility…predictable earnings, almost 6% yield.”

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4. Deep Dive: The 500% Bull Case on "Strategy" (Bitcoin Proxy)

Guest: Mark Palmer, Benchmark Stone X
Segment Start: 37:30

Palmer’s Thesis

• Mark Palmer (37:37):
  • Price target: $570 (approx. 500% upside)
  • Strategy is a levered play on bitcoin; if BTC appreciates (e.g., $60K–95K), stock surges.
  • Legislative catalyst: Clarity Act could further boost BTC and, in turn, Strategy.

Key Points & Concerns

• Karen Feiderman (38:37):

  • Questions role of NAV vs. multiple in the price target.

• Mark Palmer:

  • Stock price not driven by NAV premium but by bitcoin appreciation and the company’s capital structure improvements.
  • Recently increased preferred dividend and ringfenced cash reserves for payouts.

• Tim Seymour (40:31):

  • Skeptical about leverage risk if BTC falls:
    • “The leverage inherent in their balance sheet scares me more now than ever, rather than the upside of an upside move in Bitcoin.”

• Mark Palmer:

  • Details downside protections: new flexibility to buy back preferreds and sell up to $1.25 billion in BTC to cover dividends.
  • Company's average BTC buy price is underwater now, but would need a collapse toward $8,000 for real trouble, and they have ample liquidity.

• Quote (43:39 - Mark Palmer):

  • “Comparing Strategy to Terra Luna is like comparing lightning to a lightning bug. They are completely different. Strategy has real assets supporting its instruments...”

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5. Other Notable Segments

Walmart’s Pullback (44:27)

• Karen Feiderman:
  • Stock fell due to overvaluation, not fundamental issues. Still likes it for long-term positioning.
• Bono Ison:
  • “This is more of a price reset as opposed to a significant sell-off.”
• Tim Seymour:
  • Sees rotation into other retail, nothing wrong fundamentally with Walmart.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Tim Seymour (02:36):
  • “The question is really on the jobs market. Because that’s where the Fed is going to be most directly focused, that’s their wheelhouse.”
• Steve Liesman (08:11):
  • “This is a high class problem…The idea that the job market seems to be in decent shape…a really good way for the Fed to say ‘I can focus on the inflation side of the mandate.’”
• Steve Liesman (09:48):
  • “Don't mess with Mother Nature, don't mess with the balance sheet is kind of like central banking rule number one or two.”
• Karen Feiderman (34:13):
  • “I didn’t know Lowe’s was here for 65 years.”
• Mark Palmer (43:39):
  • “Comparing Strategy to Terra Luna is like comparing lightning to a lightning bug.”

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Segment Timestamps

• Fed & Macroeconomy: 01:03 – 17:16
• Nike Stock Volatility: 17:16 – 20:10
• Meta’s AI Cloud Business: 22:13 – 28:07
• Affirm’s Surge: 29:57 – 31:54
• Dividend Kings Discussion: 32:24 – 36:29
• Strategy (Bitcoin Proxy) Bull Case: 37:30 – 44:29
• Walmart Pullback: 44:27 – 46:29
• Final Trades: 46:38 – end

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Overall Tone & Takeaways

• Panel is generally optimistic about equities, especially given economic resilience and accommodative "relative" Fed policy.
• Macro “worries” like potential hikes are weighed but not deemed a present danger.
• Growth themes: AI bottlenecks, hyperscaler dominance, fintech and payments remain at the fore.
• Value and yield plays (Dividend Kings) scattered through portfolios, but panel remains selective.
• Bitcoin-adjacent equities are seen as highly levered, risky "proxies" for those bullish on crypto’s regulatory future.

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Useful For:

• Investors wanting actionable macro and sector guidance
• Listeners monitoring the Fed, AI, and crypto macro themes
• Dividend growth seekers and stock pickers
• Those seeking a quick pulse on market leadership

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For further market insights and actionable analysis, tune into “Fast Money” weeknights at 5p ET on CNBC.

Transcript

[Mark Palmer]

At Edward Jones, we believe rich is more than caring about the latest and greatest. It's also taking care of what gives your life meaning.

[Karen Feiderman]

That's why your dedicated financial advisor meets

[Mark Palmer]

you where you are with personalized financial strategies that help protect what matters so you can preserve your progress while creating a path forward. The key to being rich is knowing what counts. Let's find your rich together. Edward Jones Member, SIPC not every sale

[Melissa Lee]

happens at the register. Before AT&T business Wireless checking out customers

[Karen Feiderman]

on our mobile POS systems took too long.

[Melissa Lee]

Basically a staring contest where everyone loses. It's crazy what people will say during an awkward silence.

[Karen Feiderman]

Now transactions are done before the silence takes hold.

[Melissa Lee]

That means I can focus on the

[Karen Feiderman]

task at hand and make an extra sale or two. Sometimes I do miss the bonding time.

[Mark Palmer]

Sometimes.

[Tim Seymour]

AT&T business Wireless connecting changes everything.

[Melissa Lee]

Live in the NASDAQ markets in the heart of New York City's Times Square. This is fast money. Here's what's on tap tonight. Counting down to the jobs report. Could a good number actually turn out to be bad news for the red hot market? And could it push the Fed Chairman Walsh and the Fed to a July rate hike? We'll debate that. And knighting some stock royalty, the dividend kings hiking payouts for more than five decades. Which ones are traders are crowning plus meta soaring into the clouds, a firm firm's payment pops from its March lows and bowled up on strategy. Why one analyst sees the stock surging nearly 500% from here. I'm Melissa Lee. Come to you live from studio Be at the Nasdaq on the desk tonight, Tim Seymour, Karen Feiderman, Bono Ison and Stu Kaiser, head of US equity trading strategy at Citi. Great to have you, Stu. And we start off with the question could good news for the economy mean bad news for the markets? As investors brace for tomorrow's June jobs report ahead of the Fourth of July weekend, the numbers expected to show a 115,000 increase in jobs jobs with the unemployment rate expected to hold steady at 4.3%. This as private payrolls came in lighter than expected, rising by 98,000 in June. Tomorrow's jobs data will come after Fed Chairman Warsh made comments at the ECB forum in Portugal today declining to hint at any July rate decision, but saying inflation is too high and that the AI boom will have huge implications for Fed policy. Markets currently pricing in a more than 70% chance of the Fed keeping rates steady at the July meeting, a 63% chance of at least a quarter point hike at its September meeting. But could tomorrow's job jobs number change those odds in a major way? Tim, what do you think?

[Tim Seymour]

Well, he said a lot. And for a guy that doesn't want to say a lot. Right. Remember, we're not going to get a whole lot out of the Fed and I. Massively impacting Fed policy. You know, at face value, you can say it's deflationary. There's dynamics. I know we had the, the inflation last week of memory and Apple and what they're doing, but ultimately the question is really on the jobs market. And so because that's where I think the Fed is going to be most directly focused, that's their wheelhouse. I like the fact that he's saying he's not comfortable at 2%. This is about winning back cred credibility for the Fed. I'm not saying the Fed doesn't have credibility. There are some people out there that have felt that the Fed has been way too accommodative, that that 2% target doesn't really matter in a short order. If we saw a 180 or God forbid, a 250 payroll number tomorrow with some, some, some higher wages element, I think the markets would get a little skittish. But let's be clear, the economy is not overheating. Now, if you have to tick around with policy a little bit to establish where you are and you're Kevin Warsh. Equities probably don't like that. I think they traded a little bit on the news today. Remember, of all the major central banks out there, the Fed right now is the easiest. That's my view. In other words, we had the ECB who cut back in June. We had the BOJ who actually did cut and as indicated, they may see. Hike, hike, sorry, hike. And may hike. We're at a case here where I think the Fed of the three is probably got the most accommodative policy. If, if they were to go 25, which they're not going to do in July, I think it would be fine for markets.

[Melissa Lee]

But let's say it's not even 250 and it's somewhere south of that, but north of expectations. I mean, don't we just need. If we just saw the jobs market firm and maybe a little bit warmer than expected, that could give the Fed some room to deliver.

[Karen Feiderman]

I'm sorry, a hike.

[Melissa Lee]

Yes, hike.

[Karen Feiderman]

Sorry, you got me.

[Tim Seymour]

Yeah, backwards day. My fault.

[Melissa Lee]

We're talking bad news. I mean, like. Yeah, it's all, we're all twisted around here. But I mean, it could give them a leeway to say, you know what, we can hike because we want to. We are committed to delivering 2% inflation.

[Karen Feiderman]

Yes. I think to me, you know, it has this dual mandate, but to me, one side of the dual mandate is heavier now. Right. And that is the price stability part, which is further away from where you want it to be, where the jobs picture is much closer. And actually right where you want it to be is pretty good.

[Melissa Lee]

Yeah.

[Karen Feiderman]

So to me, the, the inflation part is much more important. I don't think anything really happens, but I am, I want to hear more about the, the Fed balance sheet and those tools, which I didn't get enough, enough detail to know from, from him today. But that's what I'm very curious.

[Melissa Lee]

What do you think, Stu?

[Stu Kaiser]

I mean, I don't think the Fed's hiking rates because of jobs, full stop. And I think if you're an equity investor, you should never complain about strong jobs data. Unapologetically. Good news is good news from an equity perspective. You know, what it does to Fed policy, we could definitely sort of have a debate about. It's funny that a few months ago the view was he's going to be uber dovish, he's going to walk in and he's going to cut just for Trump. And now, now we're having the opposite discussion. I do believe the debate around the macro impact of AI has shifted materially over the course of the last three to six months. Six months ago, this was viewed as upward pressure on the unemployment rate and very, very deflationary tokens have got expensive layoffs and Pause. And now it's viewed as probably inflationary because of the huge industrial production and construction buildout. So him saying that's going to significantly impact Fed policy is probably true. I don't think we know in which direction. And I think the other part of that is Fed rate hikes are going to do absolutely zero to impact CapEx spending of, of the hyperscalers. So I'm not sure that they really have much ability to impact this anyway. So I think it's probably a very uncomfortable situation for them. And that sense.

[Melissa Lee]

Yeah, Bono, and your thoughts ahead of the jobs number?

[Bono Ison]

Yeah, I tend to be with you, I think. I mean, that narrative has definitely kind of reversed itself there. And I also think you're going to have to get a very large volatile swing in one direction or the other in order to kind of move markets away from what the current expectations are, in my view.

[Melissa Lee]

All right, so. Wow. A lot of no impact.

[Tim Seymour]

Well, let's be clear, the economy is in great shape. We had a PMI number also manufacturing side that at least is near or four year highs was a little weaker than last month. But you know, everybody thought this was just a big fat pull forward or that a lot of this is driven. I'm not so sure. I think, you know, and I'll give the White House some credit here, I mean this is, there's been a lot of manufacturing that's been either attempted to be started to be brought back home. I think it's something that's a trend that's going to continue. We all know the services part of the economy is a lot more important but the prices paid component came way down. We know a lot of that was oil, but the PMI numbers were good. The jolts numbers yesterday were good. A payroll number, Stu saying like let's, let's, let's call it what it is. This is going to be a very good backdrop for equities, especially with the earnings growth that we have. And yeah, I mean if we have a hawkish Fed, that's not great except for the fact that right now I think things are pretty accommodative. I think markets are at all time highs. I think there's a ton of liquidity. I think we could take 25 bips even though they're not going to do it.

[Melissa Lee]

All right, for more on the jobs picture and the Fed, let's bring in senior economics reporter Steve Lisman. Steve, I know you've been listening to our conversation and the point that came in terms of the dual mandate. A strong jobs number could afford the Fed to look away from that side of the mandate a little bit more and focus much more on the price stability part and maybe embolden them or give them the leeway to hike more. I mean, is that a good interpretation or we just don't know enough about war to, to have that interpretation?

[Steve Liesman]

Yeah, but, but I want to make one point which is that everything you guys are talking about, which was a really smart conversation, I was enjoying listening to it. This is a high class problem, right? And I think I kind of side with Tim on this. Look, let's go back to Powell and the dilemma that he had between a potentially weakening job market and inflation being brought up by tariffs and then by oil prices. And the Fed was in this terrible place where it couldn't cut rates, it couldn't hike rates. You know, it tried to stay a little bit above neutral. The idea that the job market seems to be in decent shape. Maybe it's a little hot, maybe it's a little, it cools down a little bit. Tomorrow is a really good way for the Fed to say you know what, I can focus on the inflation side of the mandate. I do not have a problem. And so that's what you hear War saying. He's talking about this idea of hey, you know, I'm not giving forward guidance. But he reiterates a firm commitment to deal with inflation. He says inflation is too high. He may be leavened it just a little bit today. Melissa but really if you look at the market pricing for rate hikes, they have a 63% probability as you said, not in July. Why not in July? Because I think Wash is holding out for this idea that oil prices will come down, maybe take some of the edge off inflation and maybe his tough talk brings inflation down. So that's why the market I think is priced not as a bet on a rate hike, but a hedge on a rate hike in September.

[Karen Feiderman]

Steve, it's Karen, thanks for being on. So what do you think is most likely from Wash as it relates to the balance sheet?

[Steve Liesman]

I think he wants to bring it down over time. There's a lot of people who disagree with Kevin on this issue. He's been very consistent on it. He makes some good points. I don't want to take that away from him. But there aren't a lot of people are sitting around and saying I got a whole bunch of problems out there and the balance sheet size is number one or two or three when it comes to Fed policy. Kevin kind of puts it up there and says this is a very big issue. But right now the balance sheet is seen by many as being kind of benign. What I heard him say today is recognizing that. Remember that old parquet commercial, don't mess with mother Nature, don't mess with the balance sheet is kind of like central banking rule number one or two the times that they've messed with it. Bernanke made an off hand remark. The market freaked out. Powell brought it down a little too fast, had a bit of a repo scare there. He said today very, very clearly I'm going to bring it down slowly, deliberately, with the agreement of my, of my colleagues. And what that means is they're going to be very sure that the level of reserves they put in the system is equal to or greater than the amount of reserves the banks need. So we don't have a major financial hiccup.

[Tim Seymour]

Steve, it's Tim, by the way. You're dating Yourself on that parquet commercial. I think it's seven. It was in the 70s. Although the fact that I know.

[Steve Liesman]

Can I help? Look at his face. How can I not get married?

[Melissa Lee]

That margarine. What is.

[Tim Seymour]

It's margarine versus butter.

[Steve Liesman]

And I'm not hiding from anything.

[Tim Seymour]

It was pretty good. And they were scary commercials. But I guess, you know what's not scary is do you think we have. I mean, we love listening to you. You're always very smart on the Fed. And are we going to be talking less about the Fed? Is, is, is Wash bringing it back? And I mean, we know he wants to bring the Fed, you know, less out there in terms of transparency, but let's be clear. I mean, Fed policy, wordsmithing every, every report and does it matter? I guess is what it comes down to.

[Steve Liesman]

Well, I think you answer your question with the last comment you make, Tim. I think we're going to talk about the Fed as much as it matters. There are times when the Fed matters less, when earnings come in 20% above. And you guys aren't asking me what's the Fed going to do? Because you're looking at earnings and earnings are trumping everything. And whoever earlier said this notion that AI investment doesn't care one whit, what the Fed does is probably 100% right? So that's not going to be a factor. If the Fed were to be less powerful, markets would care less about the Fed. I think that's a flaw in Washing thinking because all that means is if war doesn't give you what you need, well, guess what, Chris Waller and any one of the Fed presidents will become more significant. So I think that Wash is going to be involved in the forward guidance game. He's going to tell us what he thinks. He's going to guide markets and the only thing that will take attention off the Fed is if somehow it's less powerful. And I don't see that happening.

[Melissa Lee]

Speaking of guidance and communication, Steve, he did say that there would be more news about the task force probably next week, and then also announced that Mervyn King was going to head up the task force on Fed communication. Can you give us sort of what the significance of appointing somebody who is at the bank of England to this task force is?

[Steve Liesman]

So, just to be clear, that was a Bloomberg report on that. We have not been able to confirm it. I suspect it's right. We've reached out to Mervyn King's office, we reached out to the Fed. Got no comment. I suspect that's right. And it's very interesting because if you may not remember this, I'll date myself one more time. Kevin Warsh in 2014 was asked by then bank of England governor Mark Carney to do a review of the bank of England's communications. And he did that in. And one of the things you came up with, you don't need to meet 12 times a year, you can meet eight times a year and you can do better and less communication. So that's one of the right answers, I think, to Tim's comment right there. There'll be good communications, but maybe not as much of it. So that's for sure. So the. And it's not been traditional for the Fed to go outside, even though it's traditional for places like the bank of England to go outside. I think this will be an interesting process where we'll get a review of communications from somebody not in the system. The flaw on that or the potential downside is Warsh was clear that members of the committee will not be part of the task forces. So that means it might be more difficult for them to get buy in on the task force's recommendations. But talk about talking about the Fed less. We're going to be talking about these task forces a whole lot.

[Melissa Lee]

Yeah. And there's a bunch of them. Steve, thank you. Always great to see you. Steve Liesman.

[Steve Liesman]

My pleasure.

[Melissa Lee]

Ahead of a busy day tomorrow with the jobs report being released. I mean, less communication, even if it's better communication. But we, I mean, we're so used to somebody from the Fed talking like every other week. I'm exaggerating, but I would think this is more volatility for all sorts of assets.

[Stu Kaiser]

It could be, but I think Steve makes the point is if Wash doesn't say anything, then he just gets communicated out of the room by everybody else who's willing to communicate. So I think to some extent he's forced to come in there. I think. You know, the key thing that I was impressed with with wars in the first preference press conference is he wants to take the Fed away from trying to dial up financial conditions and manage the markets actively. And he believes that that sort of dampens the, the wisdom of the crowd that you get from the markets. And I think they would be very healthy for them to not to think they can just turn the dial a quarter of a turn and it does all these things. So to me that'll be the big thing. What does that mean? I think Fed communicating less means the reported data matters all that much more. So days like tomorrow become more Important.

[Karen Feiderman]

Yeah, I'm not buying that means more volatility either actually because I think if we have someone come out every week that could cause some sort of volatility one way or another every single week as opposed to waiting for, between, you know, however long it is. And let's say they only announced once a quarter. That was the only communication we had. And then the rest of the time to your point, we just have to look at all the other data. So I'm not really buying that it, that it creates volatility. The fewer, let's say that we were 10 ounce every hour. I mean what, what good would that do? So somewhere along the spectrum is the right, is the right cadence of how often you should do it.

[Tim Seymour]

A question.

[Steve Liesman]

Sorry.

[Karen Feiderman]

No, no, go ahead.

[Tim Seymour]

Well, a question we can't answer, but this gets back to the ethos of where Kevin was trying to go. This is a guy, remember, came into the Fed and had some really prominent work during the financial crisis crisis when things like Operation Twist and TARP and all this other stuff were, you know, terms acronym central was created. Where would we be without more Fed in our markets today? We can't get that answer. But, but Kevin Warsh wants less Fed and you can't tell me that the more Fed that we've had hasn't been equity positive. So, so you know, on, on the margin, I think Kevin Wash is not as good for equities as the preceding couple. Fed Chairman it doesn't mean that has anything to do to change the economic dynamics of what's going on in the world. But you can't tell me that not only since the financial crisis, but you could go all the way back to the Tequila crisis and say we've had more Fed in the markets in the last 30 years and 40 years than we ever had before that. And Kevin Wash is from that old school which says less Fed.

[Melissa Lee]

Meanwhile, shares of Nike jumping almost 5% today comes on the back of a quarterly earnings report that sent the stock tumbling after hours yesterday during our show, Nike down more than 10% at its lows. But today Nike is the Dow's best performing stock. So is the rebound a sign Nike could be coming off the mat? We should note this is also on very heavy volume was 280% of the average daily volume in Nike shares, your shareholder.

[Tim Seymour]

So it's pretty cool to have this conversation tonight after the conversation we had last night because the numbers weren't that bad. And then we watched this thing cascade lower and we were waiting for the guide. But I Think we got into a low 37 handle. So you can do the math at this point. I mean, this is a 15% move or more on the intraday low to the aftermarkets. And what's causing it? Well, actually, I mean, I think the response is that, you know, whether this was the bottom boy, the markets told you that the price reaction, the volume today, I'm not going to make that call because I just don't want to make that call. But it does feel like there is a, there is progress with the core business, there is progress with China. I know that that's, those are big question marks that could still be there. The biggest issues for, for Nike and I said this last night, I'll stand by, I think are macro. They're not Nike. It's that the sportswear business, is that the Jordan streetwear business. I mean, these things are saturated. People don't need more of this stuff. I think Nike's core footwear business is fine. It's got a lot of competition, maybe more than ever, but they're the top dog. So I don't think you're, you're, you're, you're chasing Nike by, by nibbling here.

[Melissa Lee]

Props to Dan, by the way. Nike was his final trade. He said, maybe it's so bad, it's good. And at least for today, Mr. The guy who's always so bullish down on everything was actually up on Nike. And here we are. Bono, in your thoughts on Nike.

[Bono Ison]

Yeah, they tried to press the shorts. Seem like they really tried to press it after hours. You saw that reversal of the Tim's earlier point. Again, it's tough to call a bottom, but you do see some glimpses of hope when, you know, you still want to scrutinize the DTC and the margins. And it seems like this turnaround is going to be a little bit more protracted than analysts had initially assumed. But again, that short capitulation, I'm not sure how much of this is new entrants and how much of this is short covering and making sure that you're not, you're not caught off sides on this trade. But I do think that short covering capitulation is the first step towards more positive price action going forward.

[Melissa Lee]

What do you think, Karen?

[Karen Feiderman]

Well, I'm out. I've been out for a little while. Not prices much different than here. I sort of moved on. You know, I just feel like I spent so much time on the name, didn't work out. It's a great company. But I agree with Tim's bigger point about macro and macro Athletic. You know one thing I do own Gap, which has had a really rough go in the last two months. I think they should just spin off athletic, sell it. Whatever they can do. It's tiny but it's part of it is the tail wagging the dog. The rest of the businesses are doing. Some of them are doing better.

[Melissa Lee]

It's a distraction coming up. Man with its head in the clouds, but it is boosting the stock in a big way. The company's push into the cloud business as compute piles up plus a firm's payment pop the stock surging off of its March lows. But can shares continue to climb? We'll debate that. Don't go anywhere. Fast Money's back into

[Tim Seymour]

this is Fast Money with Melissa Lee right here on cnbc.

[Melissa Lee]

This year's girls trip to Telluride was the best. We one upped ourselves with my Sapphire Preferred card. And with 5 times points on Chase Travel plus 3 times points on vacation homes with top brands, we got this incredible cabin. It was a mansion. And with three times the points on dining, we ordered a Wagyu steak dinner and that pistachio gelato was too good. So where should we go next year? I've got ideas. Chase Sapphire preferred the card that's preferred for a reason. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase bank and a member FDIC subject to credit approval terms apply. Not every sale happens at the register before AT&T business Wireless checking out customers

[Karen Feiderman]

on our mobile POS systems took too long.

[Melissa Lee]

Basically a staring contest where everyone loses. It's crazy what people will say during an awkward silence.

[Karen Feiderman]

Now transactions are done before the silence takes hold.

[Melissa Lee]

That means I can focus on the

[Karen Feiderman]

task at hand and make an extra sale or two. Sometimes I do miss the bonding time. Sometimes.

[Tim Seymour]

AT&T business Wireless Connecting changes everything.

[Mark Palmer]

Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder With a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odoo, the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all in one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier. From CRM, accounting, inventory, E commerce and more. And the best part, Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you try Odoo for [e-mail] that's o-oh.com welcome back to Fast Money.

[Melissa Lee]

Met a share surging nearly 9% after the company announced it is building a new cloud business with plans to sell its Excess AI computing power. Julia Borson's got the details here. Julia?

[Julia Boorstin]

Well, Melissa, sources confirm that Matter is working to build out this AI cloud infrastructure business. But this should not be a surprise since Mark Zuckerberg first talked about this last year in October and then he talked about it again in a little bit more detail at Met, his annual shareholder meeting which was in May when he said, quote, it's definitely on the table. Almost every week there are different companies that come to us from outside asking us to both stand up an API service or asking if we have Compute that they could buy from us at some premium to what we bought it at. Zuckerberg laid the groundwork for this kind of business when he appointed Dina Powell McCormick as the company's president and co head of its new Meta Compute division. Metta would be with this kind of business challenging Amazon, Microsoft and Google's AI cloud businesses. While selling Raw Compute would rival AI cloud companies including coreweave and Nebby Group. You see both of those stocks traded dramatically lower today and for Metta and its gains on the News Day, nearly 9%. Some analysts are bullish on this creating a new revenue stream for Metta. But Truist warns that heading into today some argued that this would actually be a bearish signal for Metta as it would imply that their AI projects have not lived up to high expectations. So this is a bit of a pivot to address that and to deal with all that compute. Melissa, Karen's got a question.

[Karen Feiderman]

Julia, hi, thanks for being on. Here's a question. A couple of days ago Google said that capping Meta's Gemini AI due to demand, demand strains and what so that I was wondering, all right, did matter was that trying to get more, they try to get more capacity at Google price, whatever that is that they could sell for what I assume is a higher price here. Is that what that was about?

[Julia Boorstin]

I don't think that's necessarily what that's about because this business has not launched yet. This is still very much in the works and in process and it's unclear when Matter would actually be able to launch this. I think that right now Metta is deploying as it prepares to deploy its own offering in the market, is utilizing Google's tools to improve its own AI systems. So remember Metta has tons of engineers who are using all sorts of AI tools and all sorts of AI compute and they've been investing in infrastructure which are really long term investments. Many of them long term investments is going to be spending as much as $145 billion on capital expenditures this year. So a lot of this infrastructure play is a long term one that hasn't, that hasn't actually happened yet.

[Melissa Lee]

All right, Julia, thank you. Julia Boorstin. What this also tells you is that there's not going to be any abating in terms of the level of capex. I would think if they can fund it in some way. But.

[Karen Feiderman]

Well, I just want to add. I do. I know Mike said it on your earlier show about is this really a signal of Meadow recognizing all right, we need some financial restraint or something like that. I think that's a much bigger message. I think that, that, you know, we want to see cash flow here. Right. And so this giant capex that we talked about, that is just enormous if they can address that with something that improves cash flow.

[Melissa Lee]

Your glass half full on this.

[Karen Feiderman]

I am.

[Melissa Lee]

Because there is a big glass half empty. There is way to look at this whole thing.

[Karen Feiderman]

The glass half empty gets you to at some point them saying, you know what, we're, we're not going to be spending this much capex in the future.

[Melissa Lee]

For now, if they're pulling in whatever it is, a billion a month or whatever the run rate of the business is.

[Karen Feiderman]

Yeah.

[Melissa Lee]

That long. They can spend that much on CapEx.

[Tim Seymour]

Also, the year of efficiency matter, part two. This, this is, first of all, this makes total sense. With their ambitions, they're not stepping away from AI this to me is just about optimizing. And roic, this is really, you know, I think it's a bigger headline actually than, than it may be. Although, you know, strategically it is a new, new revenue line and if anything it's like, hey, and I'm looking at Jefferies report here. They say, you know, met as gate crashing the hyperscaler club. So it's really more look out the other four. I don't think this is a core business. I do think it's exactly what he just said. And if you think that they don't have capacity and ability to mark this up and improve roic, I think you're crazy. So I, I'd be happy with your 8% move today. I don't know that this changes the narrative in the short run, but I think it's my glasses. Helpful.

[Melissa Lee]

Yeah. How are you feeling on the hyperscalers in general?

[Stu Kaiser]

I mean, look, I think you take away from this, the bottlenecks are real and they're really long and they're not going anywhere and you have to own them. And these companies are trying to get really creative about how to deal with it. So if anything, to me it just kind of reiterates at least for the next, I don't know, 12, 24, 36 months. These bottlenecks are hard to resolve. I mean our, our folks have us public spending on Capex at a trillion dollars next year, a trillion and a half out to 2030 and you'd have to argue the risks are to the upside to those numbers. So the bottlenecks are real, the spending is happening, people are getting creative with how to deal with them. And I think that just means pick your favorite bottleneck. We like power Gen but pick your favorite bottleneck and own it.

[Melissa Lee]

I mean it's another player though with supply into this bottleneck and yet the other hyperscaler. To your point, earlier on our conference call they didn't, they went higher today. I mean you saw Nebbys and Core. We've go down on that front in terms of the sort of the commodity aspect of cloud compute. But for the hyperscalers it's not seen as a threat in any fashion.

[Karen Feiderman]

Not this particular thing. I mean what's happened to the hyperscalers recently is this idea of the price of tokens and how much that's fallen. So you want a different bottleneck. You could start at TSMC and ASML and work your way down somewhere along the line. I think the bottlenecks are good to. I don't own any micron though.

[Tim Seymour]

I want to do a segment on Stu's power gen bottleneck. I mean that sounds interesting.

[Karen Feiderman]

Yeah, we quantizer deliver that. Yeah, Nova coming.

[Melissa Lee]

We take requests. Coming up in focus. As a payment player doubles off its 52 week low, can shares keep charging higher? We'll debate that straight ahead. You're watching Fast Money live from the NASDAQ marketsite in steamy Times Square. 100 degrees here, back right after this.

[Bono Ison]

Before we had AT&T business wireless coverage, our delivery GPS wasn't the most reliable. Once our driver had to do a 14 point turn to get back on route. A 14 point turn. An influencer even livestreamed the whole thing.

[Steve Liesman]

Not good for business.

[Bono Ison]

Now with AT T Business wireless routes

[Mark Palmer]

are updating on the fly and deliveries are on time. And the influencer did get us 53 new followers though.

[Tim Seymour]

AT&T business wireless connecting changes everything.

[Mark Palmer]

Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odoo, the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all in one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier from CRM, accounting, inventory, e commerce and more. And the best part, Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you try Odoo for [e-mail] that's O D O O.com Thursday, July 16 CNBC Sport and Boardroom Join

[Tim Seymour]

Fanatics Fest for game plan Groundbreaking ideas shape shaping the future of sports and entertainment. Request your invite at cnbc events.com/game plan

[Melissa Lee]

welcome back to Fast Money, a firm shares climbing back to their January highs. A fintech company surging nearly 100% off their 52 week low in March. Analysts at Citi hiking price target on the stock to $115 from $100. Karen, you flagged us. You're in this one.

[Karen Feiderman]

Yes, I mean it's been kind of a wild ride in many ways it mirrors some of the other ones we've looked at but sort of credit cards which I know this is different, they don't carry the debt. A firm does carry some and not others and it's and it sells securities to hedge funds and to have more money to lend. So I like it though. I like, I think the oil price coming down is very good for the consumer. I also think it's just, I mean this is a popular way to buy now and for the, for the, you know, every two week payment, the forward two two week payments, four of them where there isn't interest. I think that's just a smarter way for some people to manage their payments. And so I like the space it was here at the beginning of the year and went all the way down to 42. Now it's back up to the very beginning as if nothing has happened at all. And yet I'm still long. I do like it though, but this is not nearly as cheap as it was.

[Melissa Lee]

Bonoin.

[Bono Ison]

Yeah, it feels a little stretched. I mean when you have essentially a 50% drawdown and then a beat and raise, I mean they came out with pretty strong operating margins I believe just south of 30%. I think it sets up for the type of price action that they've had. So there's not very much for me to argue there. It's really now at this point in time that it's recaptured essentially all of that round trip. Is it worth investing the incremental dollar? And I do question that the forward PE is one thing, the other is I believe Wal Mart switched from a firm to Klarna. And so I just start to question some of those vendor relationships and whether or not that might be the canary in the coal mine in terms of those not necessarily being as strong as bulls might argue.

[Melissa Lee]

Coming up, stocks ready for royalty. The company is being deemed dividend kings after hiking paths for more than 50 years. The names are Traders are igniting when Fast Money returns.

[Stu Kaiser]

Fast.

[Mark Palmer]

Catch us anytime on the go follow

[Tim Seymour]

the Fast Money podcast. We're back right after this.

[Melissa Lee]

Welcome back to Fast Money Stocks kicking off the second half in the red. The Dow hitting a fresh all time high in today's session, but ending the day virtually flat. The S and P with a small loss down about quarter of a percent and the Nasdaq falling more than half a percent. But the S and P and Nasdaq both pacing for their best weeks since Gold since gold started in July with a gain of 1%. I think we're missing a word there. But still down nearly 6% for the year. Crude oil settling below $69 a barrel. WTI still up nearly 20% in 2026. Meantime, hear ye, hear ye, all rise for the dividend kings. What are the dividend kings? Well, these are stocks that Barron's recently highlighted as companies that have raised their annual dividends every year for at least the last 55. Zero. That is right. 50 years. There are more than 50 companies that made the list, including Procter and Gamble, Lowe's, Coca Cola and Altria. So we thought we'd ask our traders who they would crown as their dividend king. Karen, start us off. And I know that you guys don't necessarily invest for dividends, but this is just sort of an interesting screen in terms of.

[Karen Feiderman]

Right.

[Melissa Lee]

Who can continue raising the dividend for that long?

[Karen Feiderman]

Well, okay, as you preface it. Yeah, the dividend was, was really, really, really the tail wagging the dog. Still an impressive. You could do anything for 50 years in a row. Yeah, that is impressive. But to me, in the short term it is fast money. After all, I chose lows and the reason is I do think the housing bill will pass and I know it won't be a quick fix to get so much more new supply, but I do think the market's reaction to if that happens and the expectation of more and more homes being so. This is great for a Home Depot and a Lowe's.

[Melissa Lee]

So Lowe's 65 years of dividend increases for Lowe's.

[Karen Feiderman]

I didn't know Lowe's was here for 65 years.

[Melissa Lee]

I know. Fascinating. Yeah, fascinating list here. Von Win, who is your king?

[Bono Ison]

My king is Johnny John and really the quick explanation is if I am going to be deploying capital for dividends my primary concern is making sure that that dividend is in fact going to remain intact. So I'm not looking at based on valuation, I'm not looking based on growth metrics, things of that. Clearly you do get a mid teen compounder here but it's a, it's a diversified medtech and pharma company that has diversified revenue streams. It's a massive large cap in a ton of portfolios and quite frankly a lot of health care is underweight within the portfolio so it's slow, boring if you will But I'm not worried about this dividend going away and if I'm going to invest for the dividend I want to make sure it's there tomorrow.

[Melissa Lee]

It actually hit a fresh all time high just yesterday talking about a lot of the clouds clearing off of Johnson Johnson.

[Tim Seymour]

I'm with this Johnny John good for you Bono. I'm a buyer.

[Melissa Lee]

Stuart, do you, do you have a king or what's your theory about.

[Stu Kaiser]

I honestly similar to Bob want to say I think if I'm going to invest in this right now I'm invested in dividends, I think they're going to grow and frankly you know I'd probably go into utilities. You know I mentioned power gen before. You're getting the dividend, you're probably going to get some, you know, some ROE type expansion you know for that part of the market related to power gen and the build out. So I didn't see any utilities on that list but I think that type of story where I'm getting a little juice from the prevailing theme in the market. Plus I'm clipping a div of I think about 2.7% for that sector I think makes a lot of sense.

[Melissa Lee]

Not bad. Tim, your king Altria.

[Tim Seymour]

Altria has been my king for a long time and it feels like a utility and it also feels like all we do is talk about the decline of the cigarette industry and all they do is continue to talk about less of a decline than you thought and price realization that changes and ultimately a multiple that around 12 times forward paying almost a 6% dividend yield. Not, not the reason to go buy a stock but it is a reason why I own this company that I think has very predictable earnings stream and I'm, I'm seeing anywhere from kind of 2 to 6% EPS growth over the last five years and I think that's kind of where they're modeling out. So I like this name a lot. I think they've done very interesting things with how to invest some of their non cigarette cash as well. And I feel great about this, Deb.

[Melissa Lee]

Coming up, a new bull call on strategy as a bitcoin proxy looks to bounce back after brutal June drop. The analyst that thinks there could be a 500% increase from current levels. He'll join us next on FAST MONEY Returns. Welcome back to fast money. Strategy catching a bid today, bouncing 7% though it's lost more than a third of its value over the past month. Earlier this week, the bitcoin treasury unveiled its its digital credit capital framework, giving it more flexibility to manage its balance sheet amid crypto volatility. It's a move which has our next guest doubling down on his bull case for the stock. Mark Palmer is a senior analyst at Benchmark Stone X. He's got a buy rating and a street high price target of $570 a share. Mark, great to have you with us.

[Mark Palmer]

Thanks for having me.

[Melissa Lee]

$570 seems nuts from where the stock is right now. So what do you, how do you see getting there?

[Mark Palmer]

It's really not all that difficult. Now part of that, of course we do need to see some appreciation in the price of bitcoin, right? That goes without saying. But strategies capital structure is set up so that if we do see a move, let's say from 60k to 95k at the end of this year, then we're going to be well on the way to achieving the price target that I lay it out. Why is that? Because strategy is effectively a levered play on bitcoin for good or ill. And I think what we've seen of late has been for ill. But that can switch very quickly either due to improving macro conditions, ones that are more conducive to bitcoin's price being higher, or regulatory changes. We still have the Clarity act, which would create a regulatory framework for crypto in the US before the US Senate still has to come to a vote. But if that vote does occur and there's a possibility it could happen in July, we could see a real boost for bitcoin and by extension for strategy.

[Karen Feiderman]

Thanks. Thanks for being on. I'm not a, not a bitcoin bear, been along for a long time. But to get to address your 570, how much of that is a Navy appreciation that you know, has changed dramatically?

[Mark Palmer]

It's not so much an Navy appreciation at this point.

[Karen Feiderman]

The reality, I mean the premium, I'm

[Mark Palmer]

sorry, the premium again, you know, it's not really about, you know, because when you look at the way in which digital asset treasury companies are measured, it's typically on what's known as M Nav, which is a multiple of the net asset value. Right now, strategy is down at about 1.07 in that measure. I am not expecting that M Nav itself is going to be the driver. However, if the price of Bitcoin were to appreciate, then the company's existing bitcoin holdings would be the driver. So strategy is just in a remarkably strong position. If we were to see an increase in the price of bitcoin, the moves that the company made earlier this week should alleviate some of the concerns about its capital strategy, particularly with regard to Stretch, which is the perpetual preferred stock that it is using as the primary means through which it's raising capital to buy more bitcoin. So bringing confidence back to that instrument, particularly by addressing investor concerns, they pumped the dividend rate on that instrument from 11 and a half percent to 12%. More importantly, they ring fenced the cash that has been set aside, a cash reserve specifically to address the dividends on that instrument dividend. So if you're buying it for 12% yield, that's great. As long as you're comfortable that those dividends are going to be paid. Now those investors can be more comfortable that they will be because the cash has been set aside and ring fenced.

[Tim Seymour]

Hey, Mark, I guess part of this for me is I really don't feel like I'm smart enough to understand this because it just seems simple. There's asymmetric risk for strategy. If bitcoin goes to 90,000, that's great rate. So I own levered Bitcoin. But what happens if bitcoin goes to 40,000? So I mean, to me the. I'm just trying to understand where there's more upside on a 30% upside or more downside on a 30% downside. So it just seems to me again, the leverage inherent in their balance sheet scares me more now than ever, rather than the upside of an upside move in Bitcoin.

[Mark Palmer]

Yeah, I think the, the concept of being scared buy strategy, I think is a lot of the reason why the company rolled out the plan that they did. Again, part of it was about addressing investor concerns as it pertains to the stretch preferred in particular. But you also saw the last three parts of that plan. One was given the company the flexibility to buy back Stretch. If they've got $1 billion, they can buy that back to support its price. They've got $1 billion set aside now where they could buy back or authorized where they could buy back their common stock. And finally, the company, for the first time, has officially made it the company's policy that it can sell up to 1.25 billion of Bitcoin if it needs to, to support its corporate activities. So what you see, I think, is strategy maturing as a company, evolving as a company, and putting itself in a position that if you do see declines in the price of bitcoin, the company doesn't have to just sit there and absorb the impact of that. It can actually take corporate actions that will put it in better position and ultimately put shareholders in a better position.

[Melissa Lee]

Where are we in terms of the average price of bitcoin that strategy has bought at?

[Mark Palmer]

Yeah, we're underwater right now, just the tune of something like $16 billion. What I think is crucially important, though, is that the price of bitcoin would have to drop to something around $8,000 and stay there for an extended period of time before the company would be any, in any quote, unquote, trouble in terms of being able to address its obligations. So what you have is a tremendous amount of optionality that's been preserved simply because the company has so much bitcoin that it can dip into if it needs to. And it also has all of these other tools that its board recently authorized.

[Melissa Lee]

I mean, that's a fundamental case. I mean, dipping down to 8,000. But there's going to be a lot of pain in the stock well before 8,000 is reached.

[Mark Palmer]

Well, that's. That's an extreme case. You know, I'm addressing the extreme case. We're now to a point where anyone who's looking at these instruments is going to want to understand their downside before they look at their upside. The upside could take care of itself in terms of, you know, a bitcoin appreciation. Again, we could see a legislative catalyst with Clarity Act. So what people want to understand, though, is, you know, is this. You know, we've heard people say, is this another Terra Luna type of situation where you saw the collapse of an algorithmic stablecoin back in May of 2022? Luna went to zero.

[Melissa Lee]

Right.

[Mark Palmer]

You know, as I have said, you know, comparing strategy to Terra Luna is like comparing lightning to a lightning bug. They are completely different. Strategy has real assets supporting its instruments and ultimately supporting its stock. And that can translate into as much liquidity as they need. What are we talking about? The company has 51 billion in value in its bitcoin holdings. Its annual dividend obligation is about 1.76 billion. So you know, what are we talking about? They've got 2.6 billion or so of cash sitting there specifically to address dividend obligations and if they needed to, they could sell some Bitcoin to keep doing that.

[Melissa Lee]

Yeah.

[Mark Palmer]

That is not a story of a company that's going to zero. That's a story of a company that's preserving optionality.

[Melissa Lee]

Mark, great to speak with you. Thank you.

[Mark Palmer]

Of course.

[Melissa Lee]

Coming up, what is wrong with Wal Mart, the big box retailer getting hit today continuing its recent drop. The next move for that stock, invest money returns. Welcome back to Fast Money. Wal Mart closing out the day down nearly 4%. The stock posting its sixth straight day of losses down nearly 9% at that time, falling more than 18% since its peak this year in May. What happened, Karen, what do you think?

[Karen Feiderman]

What do I think? I think the main thing that happened, it was too expensive. That is a big thing. So in the 140 range and I'm long, I've been long for a really long time including, you know, if you went home long, it's the same as bought at the closing price. So this is a really big move down. Tim's team, the T and Tim's Timbo Target doing very nicely. I don't know, I do like Wal Mart. I think they're doing all the right things. I think the valuation part was the overwhelming problem. I do still think there's. They're very well positioned no matter how the customer does Bono and yeah, I

[Bono Ison]

mean I tend to agree with Karen. I mean I think it's a great stock. I mean if you look at, you know, some of their Walmart plus businesses, the issue is the that higher margin segment still doesn't make up the bulk of their revenue and then you have some of the tariff overhang. But all of that aside, I really think when it was at 4,748 times forward, it's just tough for a name that doesn't grow at 20% and that has a beta that's relatively muted. So I think this is more of a price reset as opposed to a significant sell off. And I'd likely be looking for a re entry point around here.

[Tim Seymour]

It's hard to argue with the valuation because everything else Wal Mart's done, they've made a lot of investment in their technology. It is a margin expansion story, therefore it's a multiple expansion story. But it had that. I think there's rotation. I think people absolutely were buying Target. I think they absolutely were rotating back into some home improvement. There's a lot of crossover there. Home Depot got really cheap. I think there's nothing wrong with Wal Mart other than that.

[Melissa Lee]

Move up next. Final trades, Final trade time.

[Stu Kaiser]

Vonawin, JPU Morgan, Stu, Angrio, xhb, Timbo let's go.

[Tim Seymour]

USA Men's soccer tonight. Let's go.

[Karen Feiderman]

Altria, Karen yes, so, okay, I'm not on the opposite side of where Bonwin is on JP Morgan. I do like JP Morgan. However, running up into earnings with JP Morgan is never something that I like. So I'm selling JP Morgan.

[Melissa Lee]

Upside calls Mad Money with Jim Cramer starts right now. All opinions expressed by the Fast Money participants are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC or its parent company or affiliates and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, Internet or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed on this podcast as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of an opinion. Such opinions are based upon information the Fast Money participants consider reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Fast Money disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com fastmoneydisclaimer Want to make your home everyone's favorite summer destination? Shop Etsy for hosting essentials like outdoor furniture for your backyard guests. Celebrate summer.