Transcript
Melissa Lee (0:00)
Your best restaurant location gets five star reviews. How do you make every location like your best location? Your best paper mill has been operating at peak productivity. How do you make every mill like your best mill? Your best data center has optimized every drop of water. How do you make every data center like your best data center? The answer is Ecolab. Better performance, better outcomes, better impact. Ecolab. Now every location is your best location. Hey Fidelity, what's it cost to invest with the Fidelity app? Start with as little as $1 with no account fees or trade commissions on U.S. stocks and ETFs. Hmm. That's music to my ears. I can only talk Investing involves risk, including your loss. Zero account fees apply to retail brokerage accounts. Only $0 commission applies to online US equity trades and ETFs and Retail Fidelity accounts sell order assessment fee not included. Some account types and securities excluded. Details of Fidelity.com Brokerage Services, LLC member NYSE SIBC live from the NASDAQ marketsite in the heart of New York City's Times Square, this is Fast Money. Here's what's on tap tonight. Soft data signal a strong week for stocks after tariff cuts fueled a market resurgence. But our fears of inflation and a slowing consumer going to pull the rug out from under this rally. We'll debate that. Plus Novo CEO shake up the WeGovy maker dropping its CEO after a rough run for the stock. Can changing the chief executive tip the scales in the right direction? And later, inside the latest opposition to President Trump's one big budget bill, how to trade Ralph Lauren with options ahead of results next week and why one of our traders is scooping up Dick's Sporting Goods at a discount. I'm Melissa Lee, coming to you live from Studio B at the nasdaq. On the desk tonight, Tim Seymour, Karen Feiderman, Courtney Garcia and Mike Koh. You start off with the market's big week, the S&P 500 climbing more than 5% and up five days in a row. The index is now less than 3% from its record. High tech, a key driver, big move since Monday. And Nvidia, Tesla, Dell and more. There were a number of bullish drivers for stocks this week, the US and China for one, agreeing to temporarily delay tariffs by 90 days. Inflation data coming in softer than anticipated and Goldman Sachs lowering its recession odds to 35%, while Barclays dismissed them altogether. But a downbeat consumer sentiment report out today could be a troubling warning sign. University of Michigan survey posting its second worst reading on record. Tariff and inflation fears weighing down the mood of respondents. So with, with the next batch of data expected to show prices rising and inflation too, is this the best it's going to be for this market? Tim, what do you think? Well, I think the inflation data is going to be as murky as the now less than recessionary calls coming from Wall street all over the place. We went from everyone starting to like raise the ante on inflation on recession to now being, well, we're less clear on recession than we were. It's the same thing with inflation. And we've been talking, I think rightly about hard data versus soft data. The soft data sentiment wise doesn't look so good. And if you look at the University of Michigan sentiment this morning, long term inflation expectations are at their highest since 1991. But there was a lot of other good news. I know Courtney's got a positive view on inflation and we'll talk about that too. I, I just think that this was the week where you just really have no idea. And that includes even listening to Wal Mart who said, you know what, we're going to start passing this through even though, you know, we, we can wait a little bit and we're going to control prices. So, but, but equities are responding to, to the worst of trade news behind us. And in fact it's so funny like if we'd never had Liberation Day and if we had never had all the trade anxiety and rancor, would we be lower than we are on some level by just and dropping the sprinkle? We talk about this all the time with companies. It's like, you know, they getting beat up by the same news over and over again. We're rallying now on the fact is every trade deal going to be a rally point. So US and EU with some pretty good news coming out of where we're going to be. I don't know. But I do think the White House is bringing good news. Not bad right now. Well, I agree with that. Good news, not bad and you know, big, you know, high, high profile deals in Middle east and all of that. But I do think a market that's down 20% and up 25% is flat. But it is not the same as flat. Right. I think that there is some damage to not just consumer confidence, CEOs confidence. Right. How do you run a business? Great, you averted this first disaster. But it's hard to think, well, there's no chance of it coming back. There has to be some chance of it coming back or in some maybe lesser form, but still not A good form. So I think that the rhetoric with China, that was clearly a good thing. If one believes, and it seems like most market participants believe, even if we get to the 90 days with no deal, we're just going to roll it over and it'll still be fine. I think though I agree with Tim, the data, I don't know what to make of the data. It's really murky. It's hard to know. Have any of the significant tariffs gone through yet? None. No. Right. So, okay, so May, June, July, those are going to be the tests. July 17th. July. No, I guess it's July. Whatever. Next month we will start seeing more of the impact. But then you had all that front running, right? Yeah. And then. So I do think also we'll see no guidance still. Why would you. Right. Why do you even need to. Right. And also, by the way, 35% tariff is still very high. Yeah, it's still, it's still affecting a higher. If we just prices, we'll still be higher. Yeah, no Liberation Day. 35%. There we are. That's the deal. Oh, wow. That's a lot, right? That's a lot, right? Exactly. That is a lot. Yeah. And that's clearly what's weighing on all the soft data right now. When you're looking at consumer sentiment data, the amount of times that people mention tariffs have significantly increased because everybody's saying, okay, maybe inflation's coming down, but once these tariffs kick in, that could affect inflation later. So people's expectations of inflation are continuing to rise right now. What's interesting is this was the second lowest reading on consumer sentiment. The worst of it, you would think was a really bad time, like a 2008, a 2001. It wasn't. It was actually 2022 was actually the lowest reading on consumer sentiment. And that did not turn into that self fulfilling prophecy where everybody stopped spending and it didn't cause a recession. So. So it's not to say that this can't always happen. And I just haven't seen it translate into the hard data. You are seeing inflation coming down, you're seeing GDP numbers are strong, earnings are strong. So until that actually translates, I don't actually think that that will necessarily become the self fulfilling prophecy everybody's so worried about. Isn't it just a matter of time before it translates? I'm not trying to rain on your parade because I'm glad you're bringing this more positive spin to this whole thing sitting in the silver lining chair. But it's a matter of time before that that pulled forward inventory runs out which a lot of people said may already and tariff inventory gets on the shelves and Wal Mart is going to start passing on cost to consumers. I mean it's just a matter of time before inflation goes higher. It can be. That's, that's the concern. Right. So that's what people are trying to weigh out. Is there a higher risk of a recession if these tariffs go through and that does cause more inflation? Yes. But also if it isn't as bad as people expect or if some of these business are able to absorb some of it, which what we talked about yesterday is Wal Mart may be able to absorb more of this than they are saying. So I think that's the question is what actually goes through. I think people are pricing in a worst case scenario than may actually come to fruition. That's the real question. Mike, where do you stand? Are you Mr. Silver Linings tonight? Well, look, I mean we've made it through some pretty key technical levels I think where I actually expected the market could have bumped its head. So the fact that we're you know, approaching basically those all time highs, I have a feeling we're probably going to test those as a matter of fact. So I think we probably could go a little bit further. As for Wal Mart, I mean obviously they are going to have some sensitivity if we don't really get big movement on some of the products that they're going to be affected by on the tariff front. But they are principally a grocer. Right. So we're looking at what 59% of their revenues are on the, on the grocery side. So I'm not really that concerned about Wal Mart on that front. The valuation is a little bit troubling as far as Wal Mart is concerned at 33 plus times forward. But you know, the tariffs, I think they're, they're sort of trying to talk to us about what that impact is going to be. And I don't, I don't know that they're trying to blow it up too much but I think that it's one of those things that the C Suite can do to try to talk to the administration from the side and say hey, this is really going to affect us and you know, maybe they'll get to see some additional movement. We've seen that there's some flexibility there and I think that's what a lot of CEOs are hoping for. I think that's a great point on the levels but we've also made the point in the past where the market swings to extreme. So maybe that low that we saw was an extreme low. And maybe here we do have some, some upside from here, but how much more? Yeah, and I guess getting back to our inflation conversation, remember, Covid was an excuse for a lot of companies to raise prices, too. I mean, there was, there was real strain within supply chain. But. But I think you kind of have an excuse if you're a company in raising prices here, too. And I think companies are going to probably have to fight that urge to raise prices if they all can do it. All right, we've got a news alert here on the FAA and some proposed flight schedule changes for Newark Airport. Philippe's got the details filled. Melissa. Slowly but surely, the FAA and the airlines that serve the Newark Liberty International Airport are going to reach an agreement when it comes to flight schedules. The FAA coming out after three days of meetings today and saying that it is proposing, similar to what they did before the meeting, 28 arrivals per hour at Newark Liberty and then once a Runway that's under construction, once that construction finishes on June 15, it would go up to 34 per hour. For a point of reference, Melissa, before a lot of these issues really started popping up about three or four weeks ago, the regular arrival rate was at about 34 or 35 flights per hour. So this is not finalized, may not be finalized until the end of the month. But the FAA is saying that it is continuing the conversations with the airlines, and at this point, they're proposing 28 per hour, which is roughly where they're supposed to be right now. But remember, they're short on flight controllers. So that's part of the issue here as well. How does the FAA decide who has to pull back? Phil, how does that get allocated in terms of cancellation? Well, it's not a slot. It's not a slot controlled airport. So the FAA can't just come in like the school teacher in charge and say, you get this, you get this, you get this. They've got to work everything with the airlines that are there. And for United, there's a lot at stake here. 71% of the flights out of Newark are United flights. So it's already cut back 35 flights a day. Now the question becomes, does it have to further cut back? And of course, the other airlines, Delta, American, Spirit, those are the other biggest of the operators there with each about 5% of the flights. They would likely have to take some cuts as well. Just thank you, Phil, quickly. Good for airlines, bad for airlines. At this point, when it gets to this point. I think at this point we're starting to think about where there may be capacity issues in other places. You rightly brought up couple of days ago that reduced capacity forced upon airlines sometimes could be a positive in terms of what we concern. They always seem to get a little fat when they have the opportunity. I think net net airlines are trading on economic sentiment and that risk momentum and I think honestly they've come a long way. I'd be a little wary here. All right. For more on market risks tied to the disappointing consumer sentiment data, let's bring in CNBC contributor Peter Bockvar, Chief investment Officer at Bleakley Financial Group. Peter, great to have you with us. Hi Melissa. Before we get to all that, I want to, I want to talk to you about a headline that crossed in just the past half hour. So we learned that the US last triple A rating is gone. Moody's has downgraded the US to a double A1 from a triple A. The outlook is stable. What does that mean, if anything to you, Peter? So, so Moody's is following s and P 14 years later. Obviously Fitch did it as well. I don't necessarily think that there is much of it. Treasuries are still dealing though with the fundamental factor of less foreign demand for them and the growing size of the pile of debt that needs to be constantly refinanced is not going to change. But it is symbolic in the sense of here's a major rating agency that's calling out the US's strained debts and deficits and I don't know if that's enough to sort of change the negotiations currently right now in Washington. I think more impactful would be if the 10 year yield really started to spike, sort of like what we saw in the UK a couple of years ago. But I don't think we should ignore it. But on the other hand, I don't know how much of an impact it's going to have on the actual levels right now in the ten year, for example, with that being the benchmark. All right, let's get to the consumer and to markets. Peter, you missed survey. It's soft data. The Fed has sort of discounted soft data, relies on hard data. But how important do you think this is? This unexpectedly weak reading. You say that it's a bipartisan issue. How does that then factor into how we handle tariff negotiations? Well, it's clear and loud and clear from, from that survey that consumers are really worried about the inflationary impact from tariffs, whether it's a one time thing or Not, I think a lot of consumers, particularly lower to middle income ones, still have PTSD from 2022 and 2023. And the last thing they want to see is another rise in their cost of living. And that Wal Mart, when Wal Mart, Wal Mart gets to dictate what they want to pay a vendor for a particular product that's sold in their store. And if one vendor is selling something too much where too high, then Wal Mart's going to go somewhere else. That Wal Mart is acknowledging that they have to absorb the price increases coming from their vendors I think is pretty notable. Now to what extent prices are going to go up. There'll be some products and not others, but I think that they can't fully absorb these tariffs is a pretty telling thing. And over the next couple of months you're going to see a lot more of that. And I'm really interested in next week to hear from the slew of retailers that are reporting to see what extent they're going to pass it through. But regardless of whether a retailer is going to pass it on to us or not, it's going to be eaten somewhere along the supply chain. So somebody is going to get hurt by this. Hey Peter, it's Courtney here. I found it really interesting looking at those consumer sentiment numbers. The consumers are clearly very concerned about tariffs. But what happens when we get past this and are we at some point going to focus on things like tax cuts, things like deregulation, things that may be positive for the economy? How quickly could you see some of those numbers turn theoretically? And what does that mean for the consumer sentiment numbers or the economy at large moving forward? Well, I hope so, Courtney. I hope that we can sort of change the conversation from tariffs. But let's just take what would be the best case scenario on tariffs and that all we have is 10% on top of what was the existing tariff rate coming into the year at? About two and a half percent. So even at that best case rate, we're still going to have the highest tariff rate since the early 1940s. And just to put a dollar around that, a 10% tariff on $3.3 trillion of U.S. goods imports, call it around $330 billion tax on U.S. companies. Well, for perspective, U.S. corporate income tax receipts are about 525 billion. So if you add those two together, you divide by the pre tax income that is implied by a 21% corporate tax rate and the 525, then you're essentially raising the effective corporate income tax rate to 34%. So that base case, 10% tariff, is essentially wiping out, back in the envelope math, the entire Trump corporate tax cut in 2017. That is a very interesting way of putting it, Peter, thank you. It's always great to get your analysis. Peter Borrow of Bleakly Mike Co. That's a very interesting way of thinking about it, terms of what it means for corporate, corporate tax, what it would be in the form of corporate tax. Yeah, I mean, it's a, well, it's a consumption tax. I don't know that I would necessarily equivocate it. You may make the equivalence with the corporate income tax necessarily. I mean, look, one of the other impacts that's going to be taking place here is that in theory, this was intended to help resolve the imbalance of trade. And one of the things that affects consumer confidence, which is one of the things we've been focusing a lot of our time and attention on, is, is that look, that's going to be impacted by the kinds of things that people like us are talking about. And if the trade deficit declines, then that is a net positive for gdp. So I think we had a bad GDP print the last time. The next one could be a little bit better because they front ran a lot of the purchases. So that might actually get, you know, get some confidence back. And the prices haven't translated to what consumers are seeing just yet. So maybe that confidence returns. All right. Meantime, the House Budget Committee failing to approve President Trump's big budget bill earlier today. Another vote scheduled for this weekend. Emily Wilkins joins us on the Fast Line with the very latest on this one. Emily? Hey, Melissa. Yeah. Lawmakers, they did not succeed today, but they are down and not out. They are getting ready to try again on Sunday night. The key to advance at this point, there are four solid nos. All of them are fiscal hawks, all of them want bigger cuts and all of them are looking at small, certain things beginning sooner. Things like work requirements for Medicaid and I think particularly interesting to the energy sector, a lot of these clean energy tax credits that are going to be phased out in the bill. They want that to happen much sooner than what we have right now. Congressman Chip Roy is one of the four that voted no today. Listen to his argument and the case that he made in committee for why he did that. We are writing checks we cannot cash and our children are going to pay the price. So I am a no on this bill unless serious reforms are made today, tomorrow, Sunday. We're having conversations as we speak, but something needs to change. House leadership is hopeful to strike a deal this weekend, Majority Leader Steve Scalise telling reporters that it's not really policy changes, it's more of when things start and stop. And just a note on these clean energy tax credits, they are set to really be a flashpoint, not just in the House, but in the Senate as well. I think folks think clean energy, they think of solar and wind, but this is more than that. This is nuclear, this is hydrogen, and there are a number of industries that are pushing for these as well. So we'll be keeping a close eye to see this vote next week, if they can get it to the floor and if they can get it passed. MELISSA Emily, thank you. EMILY wilkins, well, I think it's it's fascinating. I think it's fascinating that at least folks that by definition and historically how they have voted have voted in line with something that would make sense. In other words, if you are fiscally by again, by definition, someone that's supposed to be looking for at least cutting spending, finding ways to raise revenue and finding the ways to raise revenue is really the opposite. I mean, what we're getting from a lot of the policy initiatives here are ways to generate tariff income. But the the revenue side of the balance sheet is something I think or the income statement people should be very concerned about. So where this all goes to is I just think we're at a place where I'm worried about discretionary spending. I bring it back to the market and I bring it back to at least certain subsectors that have had a tremendous rally off of those lows. We're looking at, you know, some of the discretionary names, especially in athleisure and apparel that have rallied almost 50% back to where they were and even north of where they were before all this happened. I think the reality is and it's also more than coincidence, I think we're getting this, this maybe it's a coincidence, but this kind of a reaction out of out of lawmakers on a day when we do get this downgrade, there is there is reason for it. In other words, there is a reason why the ratings agencies are coming through, whether the market is listening or not. At some point, the rest of the world and that gets back to the other debate we've had all week about treasury yields, which are creeping higher. Coming up, two cable giants set to join forces in a nearly $35 billion deal. An early test to see how the Trump administration deals with industry consolidation and big M&A plus. Why one of our traders thinks the pullback in Dick's sporting goods is ripe for buying. What a new suitor would mean for footlocker More fast money coming up. How will you shape the future of energy with confidence? What does it mean to deliver affordable and reliable energy for all? From evolving supply and demand to pricing uncertainty, EY understands the disruptions energy companies face and how to drive the outcomes that matter. So whether it's in the plants, at the pipeline or on the grid, EY's full spectrum of services help energy companies maximize operations to drive profitability and performance. EY Shape the future with confidence. Our state has changed a lot in the last 140 years. We know because MultiCare has been here guided by a single making our communities healthier. That comes from making courageous decisions, partnering with local communities to grow programs and services, and expanding healthcare access to those who need it most. Together, we're building a healthier future. Learn more@mycare.org Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welco to the now it pays to Discover. Learn more at discover.com/credit card based on the February 2024 Nelson Report welcome back to Fast Money. Cable companies charter and Cox Communications announcing a deal today. They are two of the largest cable companies and their tie up is valued at 34 and a half billion dollars. Question now is how will President Trump's antitrust teams view this deal? CNBC's Julie Borson has more on this story. Julia well, both the CEO of the CEOs of the companies that are emerging as well as analysts seem pretty bullish that this deal will get approved. And this deal could be a litmus test for the Trump administration's approach to deals in general and also the potential for M and A floodgates to open. Now this deal combines Charter's 31 million customer relationships and Cox's roughly 6 million, giving it more scale to compete with Comcast 51 million customers. Comcast is CNBC's parent company now. Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey and analysts are bullish. The deal will be a improved the merger aims to help the cable industry, which has been struggling with cord cutting as well as increasing broadband competition from the wireless carriers. New scale will give the combined company more leverage when it comes to negotiation distribution deals with media companies, enabling it to create a more appealing bundle for customers, a bundle that also includes mobile service. So what's next? Now analysts project more deals, particularly with with wireless carriers. KeyBank notes that charter could be looking to strike another smaller deal, such as one with a small broadband provider like Cable One and Comcast. After a spinning off versus Versant, CNBC's parent company could look to buy the likes of Altice. Melissa. So it is in the hopes of having a more robust bundle when it comes to the services side of it. Correct. I mean that's really the driver. I mean analysts were very bold up on the Charter thesis prior to this deal, even because it was able to offer not only broadband but also mobile broadband. Mobile and content. And what's so interesting is it's not about cable content necessarily, but subscription to a content bundle. You may remember that Charter has struck a number of deals with media companies such as Disney, negotiating to make sure that they're not just offering linear TV channels, but also access to an ad supported streaming tier. What that does is it locks consumers into a subscription. So it means if you're paying for everything, everything through Charter, you're less likely to turn out. And then for the media companies, it gives them more viewers to their ad supported tier. So maybe they're not making as much money from the subscriptions, but they are growing the number of eyeballs in order to grow that ad business there. So Charter is very much looking at this holistically. How can they make sure that now with Cox, they have all of the options necessary, including the content deals to lock in consumers for as long as possible in a time when there's more competition than ever. All right, Julia, thank you. Julia Boorstin, Versant is going to be CNBC's parent company. To be clear, this is a very interesting A lot of the analysts raise their price target on Charter on the back of this. Yeah, I think it's interesting. I think that it's hard to say there's not competition, right. In terms of the ability to get this deal done. There's competition from everywhere. So I think that will help. And to the extent, you know, Julia talked about what the strategy is, lock them in, offer all kinds of things and so they never leave you, which is sort of where they've been all along in what used to be the old model. Right. Have relationships with all the content. Right. But so it's interesting also though, I do love seeing a big deal. I mean they feel good enough that right now how many deals have been on ice? So it's good to see a deal get announced. I think it's interesting point you're raising and one of the things I thought about is again what's, what's competitive force in an industry. I mean the reason this is happening is because of competition and the different formats from within in which you can get your content. So I also think it's interesting on a day when historically people would have looked at this a couple of years ago when it was the writing was on the wall as a negative day for the industry and all these stocks would have been down, they were all up today. I think the clawing back of the bundle is great news for Disney and I think we've kind of heard bits and pieces about why this is, you know, kind of where they seem to be going and what they've articulated. I like it. All right, there's a lot more fast money to come. Here's what's coming up next. Dicks on discount why one of our traders is scooping up the sporting goods retailer as investors ran run into Footlocker and how another suitor sliding in could be a positive for both names. Plus a CEO shakeup in the pharma space. Novo Nordisk's chief stepping down after a rough run for the stock, what it means for the drug maker and the impact on the weight loss drug wars. You're watching Fast Money live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. We're back right after this. How will you shape the future of consumer products in retail with confidence? Behind every favorite product or seamless checkout, there's a series of strategic decisions to make. EY brings real time insights and deep sector expertise to create value in the moments that matter. Whether it's untangling global supply chains, managing cost pressures or leveraging emerging tech, EY's full spectrum of services helps CPG and retail companies deliver products profitable growth. Ey shape the future with confidence are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99 of places that take credit cards nationwide and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn more@discover.com creditcard based on the February 2024 NEL report. Welcome back to Fast Money. Dick's Sporting Goods finishing the week down nearly 4% while Foot Locker nearly doubled in value. This after Dick's announced on Wednesday they Intend to purchase the sneaker chain for $2.4 billion. Karen actually made some moves in one of these names today. Yes, bought some Dicks yesterday. And the reason was clearly the market hated that Footlocker deal. But the amount that Dick's was down was more than the entire value of the deal. So do you think Footlocker is worth zero? Maybe you might think, okay, this is value destroying. But interestingly to me, Foot Locker was trading, I thought way too high. It was trading to reflect. If you look at the options it was trying to reflect, maybe there's someone else out there. To me, I would much rather own Dick's here than Footlocker at the same price on the hopes of a higher bid for Footlocker. Because let's say they get a 5% higher bid. That would be interesting. Dicks will go up way more than that. And let's say Foot Locker doesn't get a bid and maybe there's antitrust problems or something happens along the way. To me, Dicks won't go down. I don't understand why that that risk reward seems so off kilter to me. So let's say the deal goes through. Deal goes through and it purchases Foot Locker. Right. Can go down or can just stay flat. I mean, or stay or go up. Is this a trade that it will somehow be released from this deal in some way, shape or form? It is a sort of free look at that, I think, because it's discounted the entire value of the deal. Okay, Mike Coe, what did the options market say? Well, the options market's kind of turned around based on what had happened when it first came out. So I think it's kind of in alignment now with, with Karen's view, which is that the company has been too discounted. You know, the way I look at this, you know, Dick's has obviously been operating very, very effectively. And there are circumstances where both of these two retailers occupy the same footprint. So there's some potential synergies where you could do a little bit of cost cutting and also, you know, reduce some competition. Now you sort of brought up the antitrust concern, so that still sits there, but I'm in wholehearted agreement. And you should always, you know, go with the better operated business in any case. So that would favor Dick's over Foot Locker for sure. All right, coming up, Novo Nordisk. Big slim down. The stock now cut in half since hitting all time highs almost a year ago and getting jabbed again today. After CEO, we'll dive into the headlines. What it means for competition in the weight loss space next. More Fast Money right after this. Missed a moment of fast. Catch us anytime on the go. Follow the Fast Money podcast list. We're back right after this. Welcome back to fast money. Novo Nordisk shares falling almost 3% after ousting CEO Lars for Yourgensen. He had been at the helm for eight years overseeing the launches of blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. But the company recently struggling to keep up with rivals amid growing competition in the weight loss space. Eli Lilly gaining 3.5% today in sympathy with Lenovo CEO ouster. Here to unpack all of this is Dr. Kavita Patel. She's an NBC News and MSNBC medical contributor, friend of Fast Money. Always a pleasure to have you, especially here on set in house. Dr. Patel. The knock on Novo Nordisk and probably the main driver of its shares lower is the perception that it's failed in R and D. Carissema was largely disappointing. It doesn't really have an oral candidate, which is where the puck is going at this point. What can it do? I mean, does this sort of pave the way for a big M and A? Because if you're behind an R and D, it's very hard to catch up. That's right, you're behind in R and D and you're behind in sales. I mean, Eli Lilly just head to head kind of Ozempic, Tirzepatide, the categories, Lilly is just outpacing them almost three to four to one. So it is very hard to kind of catch up. But there are a number of incretins in the pipeline. So this space, kind of this entire space, not just GLP1s but kind of all the ones that we've been talking about, double G, triple G. Like Lilly has the orals, even though Pfizer pulled theirs back. There's others in the pipeline, some small companies. So I think they should be thinking about kind of what's next. They did put so much into cagrosema. They also did put out some press around the semaglutide, kind of at a higher dose. But with that is likely to come some of kind complications. So I think to be determined whether that could kind of overcome some of this. But they've lost so much market traction. Has Lilly become the leader so far? They have and we're all waiting. Look, read a True Tide. As you know, I've been speaking about kind of eagerly awaiting some of those trials and they've moved up kind of the expectation for us to get some of those results. So I think there's a lot of hope that's being put on there. I think the oral category is interesting, although I think we've talked about this, that the shots reign supreme, not just in performance, but I think so far in kind of people's preference, too. So we'll see once there's actually a competitive oral. Could that displace it? I think it will. I do think I have a number of patients that said, I just don't want to do a shot for different reasons, and so I think it could. But you've. You've been seeing Lillian and Novo play this game with Kagar Sema, having results that were decent. They were decent. Yeah. They weren't terrible. This is what's stunning to me. But they set this expectation that 25%, and then somehow everything seemed a failure, despite what I would argue as a doctor. 22%, 17%, 15% weight loss is even. Pretty remarkable. Especially maybe the side effects were an issue, but that's also a problem with Tirzepati. So it is interesting that somehow there's this perception that they're just so inferior. And I think this points again to where Novo's kind of lost a little bit of that narrative, too. Yeah. But it's fascinating then the company has just. First of all, great to have you in person. Second of all, it's fascinating that the company just basically today said, we're only reiterating our strategy. We're not changing a thing. We're going hard on this. And it's almost a ratification of what they've already done. Right. And then getting back to all the things that you know better than I do. But it just seems to. To me, at this point, the company is being penalized for Cagrosema, as if they didn't have it at all. At all. Right. And if I look at the stock price and I look at the multiple. Look, I've been wrong for the last 20% on this thing, and fortunately not with a lot of money, but more for just my sentiment around it. But I. It makes it more compelling to me today. Yeah, I agree. No, it's. It's interesting. Also, keep in mind what Novo was known. Known for before this category of drugs, they really are the chronic disease, you know, insulin. This is a class of products that I would argue, kind of define diabetes. So these are the very people where you would think, look, they've done this in diabetes, taken a punch to that, done this in weight loss, and they've succeeded in that, but still seem to be suffering kind of for the perceptions doctors are clearly prescribing kind of Tirzepatide. However, this is a company that should be a leader, just like Lilly, in kind of chronic diseases, because this is what they know. This is what their pipeline has had, this is what they had marketed at. But it did seem like for different reasons, it just came to a screeching halt. And I am amazed at how much the prescribing power. One could argue that's kind of just the sales and marketing team, the commercial team that's getting out there. But TikTok has done Ozempic. It's what rolls off the tongue. You don't hear a lot of people rolling off the tongue with Zepbound. They're even referring to Zepbound as Ozempic because that's what people know. So if you can't kind of capitalize on that, that's. That's a rough call. Yeah. Dr. Patel, we have to leave it there. Great to have you come by anytime. House calls. That's a good name of a segment. We'll do that next time. Kavita Patel all day. Courtney, where do you stand here in this space? Yeah, I think it's interesting because the oral, I think, really is where it's going to go. And I think you bring up some good points of people saying, well, I'm happy with the injection because it's working better. But I think when you look at it internationally, it's going to be so much cheaper to distribute and get to, especially some other countries. I think that's going to be the real big opportunity. So I do agree here. Even though Lilly does seem to be winning this space, Novo, so much cheaper, and they are still in the business, there's still not enough to go around for the demand that's out there. So I don't think they're going away anytime soon. I would look at them as an opportunity. I still like Lilly, even though it's expensive, but I think Nova's probably the better buy. When I saw the news this morning that the CEO was asked that I thought the stock would be higher, I was sort of surprised that it was. It was lower and. Well, that's what I would have thought. But also it also makes you think this current quarter probably is not going so well. Right, Right. There was a reason. Right? Another reason. Another reason. Yeah. Yeah. Mike Lilly or Novo? Lilly. You know, the options market was pretty pessimistic on Novo coming out of this, and we obviously saw that in the stock's price action. Lilly Meanwhile, somebody made a size bet to the upside. We saw somebody trading the 85960 call spread expiring third week of June. So basically targeting those highs that we saw not that long ago in Lilly. So the sentiment is definitely on the upside in Lilly, more so than Novo. Wow. Coming up, a big week for shares of Ralph Lauren, up over 10%. What are the options saying about how the stock will stack up ahead of earnings? Will have the trade Plus Bitcoin's big month. The cryptocurrency up nearly 25% since mid April. What it means for the space now that more companies are taking a page out of MicroStrategy's playbook. That's right after this. Welcome back to Fast Money. Lots of retailers reporting next week, but we've also got Palo Alto Toll Brothers on Dec. So how are options traders gearing up? Who better to ask than Mike Koh? What do you see, Mike? Yeah, Home Depot, that one's implying almost 4% earnings move. We're looking at Palo Alto Networks, that one's seeing double that at about 8%. Looking at Toll Brothers, that one's about 6%. And Target, that one's still chopping around a little bit more than 9%. And I was also taking a look at Ralph Lauren, which is implying a move of a little over 5%. I like this name, but it's approaching a different difficult level up around 280. And of course we saw the damage the tariffs did to this thing. So I was looking at buying some October at the money 280 calls and then selling a 243.10 strangle against it in June to help finance that purchase. That would be my way to make a slightly less risky play to the upside in that one. Interesting Ralph Lauren. I feel like, Tim, you have trafficked in this name. I have trafficked. I just again, I'm going to say I'm cautious on apparel and discretionary here after monstrous, monstrous moves back and again almost rewarded as if the cyclicality of their business is is doesn't matter relative to tariff pain. And this is also a company where a lot of the growth is expected to come internationally because you are starting to see some slowdown here in the US but especially with like the younger generations like your millennials who would like like jeans and athleisure is actually spending less in a place like Ralph Lauren and then you add the tariffs on top of that and could that affect their international growth? Could be a real question. So I think it's something to look at here. So I was long gap and I actually sold it too early because it's been up the last few days just on the idea of it's back well over where it was when they had that very good earnings quarter. And a lot of potentially bad things have happened just in terms of tariffs and withdrawing them. They still don't, you know, that same question of how do you know how to run your business? Right, right. So wasn't a great sale. It will be interesting to see also when the retailers report next week if there's any impact on de minimis, that loophole being closed and whether or not there have been shopping dollars reallocated away from the Timuntians to other retailers out there. I don't know if you have a thought on that. I mean, I wonder whether that moves the needle. I think the concept of it though is something that the market should probably reward those folks that would be the beneficiaries. But that's a great point. Yeah, it will be interesting to see how they handle tariffs to of course, the retailers. Coming up, what is behind bitcoin's latest bull run? And could more companies buying and holding the cryptocurrency fuel an even bigger rally? More fast money into. Welcome back to Fast money. Galaxy Digital jumping in its first day here at the nasdaq. Mike Novogratz's crypto firm moving over from the Toronto Stock Exchange following a year's battle with U.S. regulators. It is the latest regulatory win for a crypto industry boosted by a big run in bitcoin, crossing above 100,000, 104,000 I should say. And back within a whisper of all time. Highs. Our next guests say new highs could be close at hand as more companies take a page out of the microstrategy playbook and pile bitcoin onto their balance sheets. Chief Executive Officer Corey Clipston and Chief Investment Officer Ben Workman of Swan Bitcoin join us now. Gentlemen, great to have you with us. Great to be here. Thanks for having us. It's rare that we have a duo here in bitcoin, but we'll make it work. Cory, I'll start it off with you. Part of your thesis at Swan is that bitcoin is maturing. It's maturing from a speculative asset to a full hedge. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Because I would think part of bitcoin's allure in the past has been the volatility, the big gains that it can have. Does this smooth out the volatility which is there's a good side, obviously, and a bad side too. Yeah, it's, it's inevitable that something that is going to be worth as much as we all believe that it will be in the future. It's not going to be a smooth ride on the way up, but as it gets larger, as the price and the market cap go up, by definition now you're going off of a larger number and so you're going to see that volatility smooth out over time. Still going to be a very bumpy ride from here on the way up for the next few decades though. Ben, what is your view in terms of the biggest driver from this point forward for bitcoin? Is it more companies putting it on the corporate balance sheet? Because even though more and more companies are doing that, it's still, I don't know, you could probably count them on two hands. You can. And it just lets you know exactly how early we are to this cycle. Shareholders have woken up and they really want their executives to start focusing not only on the income statement, but on deploying the balance sheet in the right way to generate value for shareholders. So I think what you're starting to see here in these early days is that the companies are jumping on board and I think they're going to be a major driver for us pushing forward because they've never had a better risk adjusted time to get involved. So I'll just. I guess I should ask someone. So I see Corey, because, you know, I've been on the other side of that where you're not sure if you're supposed to answer. Not Corey. So it. Couldn't we be talking about gold? Couldn't we be talking about anything that companies could have been putting on their balance sheets for years that really made some sense? I mean, in other words, you can make an argument why dollars are yesterday's fiat, you know, but. But it just seems to me, I understand when someone's making a levered call on something, but it just seems to me that that completely changes what companies do. Why not be a bdc? Why not be something that actually is intended to be just that? Yeah, so. Well, there are a few things at play here. One is that bitcoin is regulated as a commodity. So it is on that very short list of potential options. It's also, you know, maybe alongside gold, one of the only commodities that tends to go up and keep pace with monetary inflation as gold has kind of historically. And bitcoin obviously as far outpaced that throughout its history. So I think it's that and then the reason that I think these companies that are going down this path, like MicroStrategy, Metal Planet, Semler Strive, etc. I think they are the ones that are led by people that truly believe that bitcoin has a lot more upside than any other asset out there. And then as far as kind of the other side of your question, which is essentially the perfect target here, and Ben can probably elaborate a little bit, is something that used to be more of a private equity target. It's a company that maybe actually has pretty good cash flows, but the market is not loving it is giving it a low multiple because it doesn't trust the company to reinvest those cash flows in the business. And that's how you end up with dividends and share buybacks. But if you put it into bitcoin now, all of a sudden, cash is king. The cash that you're making actually rides that bitcoin cagr that again, historically has been fantastic and we expect it to be that way for decades to come. Ben, what's interesting about this run is that it's coming alongside the historic run in gold. Bitcoin obviously is. There's a case for it being digital gold. But where are the dollars coming from in your view? Where are the inflows coming from? I think when people have been looking at all the issues with tariffs and they've started to really wake up to the problems that face even the United States with their reserve currency, with monetary debasement, inflation, they're looking for ways to opt out of that system. And you saw that recently with all the tariff action when people were really expecting the risk assets to take a dive. And bitcoin showed a lot of strength during that period. So I do think you're starting to see that rotation out of US Dollars and into hard assets where they believe that they're opting out of that system and taking a stance. Okay, guys, great to have you with us. Thanks so much. Thank you. Cory and Ben of Swan. All right, up next, we got final trades. It is time for the final trade. Let's go around the horn. Mike. Co, we were just talking about bitcoin. I bought a little MSTY. This is the MicroStrategy Options overriding etc ETF from Yieldmax. Don't just look at the price of this thing. It's not just a capital appreciation story. It pays a massive dividend because of those high options premiums. Very interesting. Not heard of that before. Timothy. So, Mel, it's Friday and we've got to play a game of. Would you rather and I'm putting it back at you, and I know you make the rules around here, but you have to play and there's no, like, I'm not playing game. Would you rather there's two huge sporting events in New York tonight. One is the Knicks, Boston Game six. The other is Yanks, Mets, Subway Series. There's no. No, I'm not watching. Would you rather which one is more exciting to you? Yanks. I like that. Novo Nordisk. Very exciting to me. I don't like that. Go Mets. Karen A crazy, crazy week, but at the end of the day, the last thing I did was buy Dick's Sporting Goods. You like Dick's? Yeah. All right, Courtney, Home Depot is one of the companies that's reporting. I think this is worth taking a look at here. They're going to have some tariff pressures, but as the housing market stays tight, I think they're likely going to still have some demand. They're looking forward, so I'd take a look at it here. Thanks for watching. Fast Mad Money starts right now. All opinions expressed by the Fast Money participants are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBCUniversal, their 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 Imagine what's possible in your business career when learning doesn't get in the way of life at Capella University. Our game changing Flexpath learning format is available in select business programs and lets you learn at a time and pace that works for you. That means you don't have to put your life on hold while earning your business degree. Instead, enjoy learning your way and earn your degree without missing a beat. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella Eduardo.
