Angelica Peebles (2:10)

Hey Melissa. Well that is just getting underway, but we heard President Trump talking about the rates in autism and how those numbers have grown so much over the years. And of course, that's something that everyone is very much concerned about. It's not 100% clear exactly why we're seeing that. You know, some of it has to do with just more diagnosis, awareness of this disease. But to President Trump, he talks about the fact that in his mind, there is something externally that's causing this. And one of the sources that they talk about is acetaminophen, Right. That's the main ingredient of Tylenol and the use of that drug during pregnancy. And so he says that the FDA is going to warn doctors about the use of that drug during pregnancy, saying that you should really limit it to only when you have high fevers. He recognizes that it's really the only pain drug that you can take when you, when you are pregnant. But if at the same time, he thinks that based on the research that we've seen, that that should be limited. Now, there's obviously some controversy there. Not everyone agrees with those findings. It has been a very hotly debated area. It's been from what I've talked to experts, they've been saying that they've been looking at this for about a decade. And you have conflicting research. You have some studies that show an association and some that don't. So definitely an area that people agree there needs to be more research, but drawing definitive conclusions at this point. Some still a little bit of a tbd, but that is an action that we are hearing from the administration. They're also moving to approve a drug to treat autism symptoms. It's a drug called Leucovirin and Leucovorin. Excuse me. And that drug is really used to help people who are receiving cancer treatment, to help with some of those toxicities. And the thinking is that it might also be able to help treat autism. And it's a drug that's used off label today. So doctors are not supposed to prescribe it, but they do anyway in some instances. And there have been some anticipations, anecdotal stories about success, and also some small studies that have suggested that it could work. But again, those are small. And now the FDA is moving to approve that. So much more to come. That is still ongoing. And we'll get back to you with any headlines.

Melissa Lee (4:13)

Melissa Angelica for Luca Vorin, have there been actual studies done specifically to study the success rate, the efficacy when used to treat the symptoms of autism?

Angelica Peebles (4:26)

There have been, but they've been very small. So what I've seen is about just a few dozen patients in these studies. So when we're talking about such a large disease, obviously it's hard to make those kind of broad generalizations, especially disease where people do think that there is not one cause, there's not just one answer, although everyone would like there to be one answer, one treatment. That's not really what the scientific community thinks. But there is still some basis for at least, you know, exploring this. And people I talked to today were saying, you know, they want to see the, you know, the actual details of this report that we're expecting. We are still expecting this autism report and they want to see what research the administration is looking at and they want to study it further. But to say this will be something for everyone, this is a panacea, probably too early for that.

Melissa Lee (5:14)

Melissa so just to be clear, we have not The White House RFK Jr. Has not released the actual research on which these recommendations are being made. And is it clear to us that it is new research that has been conducted in this area or that it is an aggregate of some sort of past research?

Angelica Peebles (5:32)

You know, I have not seen a report. I was just watching the event and then I tuned on here. So I have not seen it. It's possible that it came out in the last four minutes, but probably not at this point. But I will certainly be looking for that. He does. They do talk about this new study that came out last month that looks at the potential link between acetaminophen and autism. And that one came out last month and one of the authors told me that he actually has spoken with the administration about this. So I think that is at least one new finding that they're pointing to. But that's also a meta analysis. So it's basically just looking at all of the already conducted trials or conducted studies and trying to make new conclusions.

Melissa Lee (6:15)

All right, Angelica, thanks. Angelica Peebles, this is a very interesting subject. It's moving. You can see the impact on companies, right? Clearly.

Tim Seymour (6:26)

And that's what our focus is. What is the impact on the stocks? And let's look at Kenview, for example. Today it traded down on three times normal volumes, the levels that we last saw in June of last year and prior to that in October of 2023. So, you know, if you're looking for entry points, this could be the classic, you know, buy the news type of situation where now it's out there. We know what's being said. The stock has had a huge downdraft. But we've seen moves like this before in the name, so you don't have to trade the stock. But if you Are you know of that ilk and you're inclined to. This is a pretty good level, I think, to play from the long side.

Karen Fineman (6:59)

Excuse me. It's clear, though that I don't know that even if there is some pushback and we're waiting for the science we're waiting for, really the new studies we're waiting for a combination of things is going to take the pressure off the company and take the pressure off of at least this view, because this view has been out there by at least this head of HHS for some time. There's been a lot of allegations, some that again, let's, let's wait to hear the science behind it, if there is any. But ultimately it does indicate that for the entire sector there have been a lot of places to be hands off. And certainly anyone that's either attached to traditional vaccine businesses that have been core, almost predictable flows of money year after year are the ones that have been under the most pressure here can view since the spinoff from JNJ is down, I think almost 30%, another 25% since the IPO. This, as Guy said, is not a stock that's necessarily been free of concern, even without the headlines of today.

Melissa Lee (7:56)

All right, for more, let's bring in Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown University School of Public Health and former White House Covid response coordinator during the Biden administration. Dr. Jha, great to have you with us. This physician's notice on acetaminophen for use during pregnancy, it doesn't seem as stringent as perhaps the markets had expected because it says that basically it allows doctors or doesn't allow, but it says you can still take it, but you should limit it. Is that not as, as bad as you thought it might be?

Dr. Ashish Jha (8:28)

Well, first of all, first of all, thanks for having me on. I mean, look, you know, obviously what women should be doing is they should be talking to their doctors about what they can take and not take. I've spoken to a lot of obstetricians today. They're largely outraged by all of this because there is no new science. The best study to date, two and a half million kids followed for 25 years in Sweden, showed no link between Tylenol and autism. The study from last year is a meta analysis of a lot of small studies that are not actually as good. So, you know, this is really putting women in a box. It's going to make their lives much, much harder. When they're pregnant, they can't take ibuprofen. And now we have the government Telling them they shouldn't be taking Tylenol. It's really upsetting.

Melissa Lee (9:11)

Ultimately though, is it left to the doctor's discretion? Because it doesn't sound like there are any limitations being put on, on by the government in terms of the ability of a doctor to say no, you can go take Tylenol, it is up to you.

Karen Fineman (9:23)

Yeah.

Dr. Ashish Jha (9:23)

So two things are going to happen. One is I think doctors are going to continue recommending that women take Tylenol because the alternative ibuprofen is dangerous, especially in the second half of pregnancy. But I think a lot of doctors are now going to worry that it's going to open them up to lawsuits. And what this really is, is a trial lawyer Full Employment Act. That's what this is going to do, is it's going to open up. Because remember, most women during pregnancy end up taking Tylenol. If a doctor, yeah, sure, it's reasonable. And then if there's a bad health outcome, they're going to go after the doctors. And so that unfortunately is going to end up being the product here. And I think it's going to cause a lot of suffering of women during pregnancy.

Melissa Lee (10:02)

So when you take a look at the broader implications of this administration's HHS when it comes down to these recommendations, I mean doctors may be permitted to do what they, what they want to do. But you're saying, you know, the aspect of malpractice, I mean that that will loom large and so it really puts a chilling effect in terms of doctors ability to really make a medical judgment.

Dr. Ashish Jha (10:24)

Absolutely. I mean, I think this is a problem that is going to have a very negative effect on women, you know, wanting to get pregnant. I mean if you can't take any pain medicines, you can't take any anti fever medicines, I think it's going to make doctors hesitant. But again, let's go back to the evidence here. The evidence here, all of the evidence, most of the evidence suggests Tylenol is extremely safe. There are a couple of small studies and if there is real concern, fda, the NIH should run large clinical trials. That's actually how we answer these questions. And, and if those clinical trials show the Tylenol is harmful, great, then we should make that a proclamation. But that's not where we are. There's no new science here. Bobby Kennedy said that he wanted to get to the root cause of autism by September. He's found what I think is a convenient scapegoat. But the harm is going to be for pregnant women across the country.

Guy Adami (11:14)

Dr. Jo, it's Karen Feineman. Thanks for being on. How long would it take to do the kind of study that you're talking about that would hopefully be, I don't know that any study could be for sure definitive, but enough data to feel comfortable.

Dr. Ashish Jha (11:26)

Well, look, even a study, you know, let's say, look, pregnancy is a short time period, so you're not going to be enrolling women for years. What you do is you, even if you get started with let's say 1,000 or 2,000 women, given how frequently this can happen, you can have good data in 12 to 18 months, a couple of years, definitely. Again, we're not looking for perfect data. But right now all the evidence, most of the evidence, I should say most of the evidence, lean towards no relationship between Tylenol and autism. So even some evidence here, better evidence would be useful. Proclamations like this based on incredibly skimpy data I do think is harmful.

Melissa Lee (12:04)

I wanted to sort of switch gears, but stay on the same topic, Dr. Jha. In terms of what the government is recommending effectively and when it comes to vaccines, mmr, mmrv, ACIP has made various recommendations which may not match with what was in place before. And I'm wondering from a prescribing physician standpoint, what does that do in terms of insurance coverage and also in terms of the malpractice aspect that you had highlighted before?

Dr. Ashish Jha (12:31)

Yeah. So again, we should be guided by evidence and data on these things. One of the reasons multiple vaccines are combined into a single shot is we actually have very good immunologic and experiential data that this is very safe to do. So much easier and more convenient for patients. Obviously for children, they get fewer shots this way. That's why we have done this. And the safety track record here is really quite clear.

Dan Nathan (12:55)

Right.

Dr. Ashish Jha (12:56)

For these, there actually have been large studies and so by forcing those vaccine doses to get split up, you're going to make it far less convenient and actually you're going to make it more likely that someone will not show up for that follow up shot or for that second or third shot. So I think you're just making it much harder for people. You know, in terms of insurance coverage, that's a state to state basis. You're going to see a lot of state states demand that insurance companies continue covering these things. But for me, this stuff should be guided by evidence and data and we should be making it easier for people to do the right thing, not making it harder for people.

Melissa Lee (13:29)

Give us a big, big picture view, Dr. John, in terms of what, what you think the impact of RFK juniors HHS will have on public health overall when it comes, when you piece together all of the different recommendations that this agency is making.

Gene Munster (13:43)

Look, let's take a look.

Dr. Ashish Jha (13:44)

We have real problems with health in America, right? We have an opioid crisis. We have a problem, we problems with cardiovascular disease. We do have problems with obesity. Instead of targeting and really tackling those big issues, we are now talking about Tylenol in pregnancy. We're talking about whether you should take three shots or four with your vaccine. We are distracted by what I think are trivial issues for which there's very little scientific basis. We're taking the eye off the ball on the big things that are killing Americans. And that is what upsets me the Most.

Melissa Lee (14:15)

All right, Dr. Jha, thank you so much for joining us. We do appreciate your perspective.

Dr. Ashish Jha (14:19)

Thank you.

Melissa Lee (14:20)

Ashish Jha, this is really interesting because you also have to think about how drug makers are allocating their research and development dollars and whether or not it aligns with an administration which has certain stances and may not match up with what you are researching.

Tim Seymour (14:35)

Are we going to get into the vaccine business? If we're in the vaccine business, glaxo, Merck, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, do we stay in there? Do we make acquisitions now? Because right. We have to grow organically. We're seeing what's going on with Pfizer. I mean they're all having those conversations without questions. But on a day like today where that news is out, I mean some of these vaccine makers actually hire. Now maybe it's just anecdotal, but Moderna, which has been straight down for a while, actually had a decent day. Some of the other names as well. So this could be one of those classic by the news events in my opinion.

Karen Fineman (15:03)

I think guys making a great point because and also Moderna and Can View are very different stories. I mean, I mean Moderna is kind of a one trick pony or at least certainly in terms of the recent run it's had. Whereas if you think about Tylenol and its percentage of the revenue base of Ken View we're talking about and I'm not sure it's totally broken out but my understanding is analysts say it's somewhere around high single digits for a company that's going to have, I don't know, close to 20 billion in revenues. This is something that I think is very much worth talking about. And outside of the legal risk, which is where you really have problems here because again, look at the ball and chain that JJ has been under for a long time. And I'm not making a judgment on whether it's right or wrong. I'm just telling you it's had that. And so if you start to worry about can you having some legal attachment, forget what it does to a core brand, we're less. I mean, this isn't about the core brand, frankly. The core brand right now this company would be a buy if you didn't have the legal overhang.

Guy Adami (15:57)

I'm sort of curious what insurers do, right. Make a vaccine recommendation or not, but is it just they're in the business of, you know, delivering profits.

Melissa Lee (16:07)

Right.

Guy Adami (16:07)

And health care, is it in their interest? And it very well may be to cover those vaccines, even if that's not what's recommended if they believe it's a.

Melissa Lee (16:16)

Big problem right down the road if the person does not get it.

Guy Adami (16:19)

Yeah. We haven't seen them yet say exactly what they're going to do, but I think it'll be interesting to see.

Melissa Lee (16:24)

Yeah, that'll be very telling to a developing story now. Argentina's market surging after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen posted on X that all options are on the table to support President Javier Milei's economic reforms, leaders from the US And Argentina will meet tomorrow at the UN General assembly here in New York. Our Eamonn Javros has more on what we can expect. Eamon?

Tim Seymour (16:44)

Yeah, Melissa, I don't think we can expect anything until after that meeting tomorrow between President Trump and President Milley of Argentina. On the sidelines of the UN General assembly, we saw Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant begin the day with a post on X social media right at the top of 9 o' clock this morning suggesting that the United States stands ready to support Argentina, calling it a systemically important US Ally in Latin America. Then shortly after that, after he tweeted out that all options for stabilization are on the table, the Treasury Secretary brought a few of us into his offices over at the treasury to say that the US Is prepared for what he called a large and forceful potential intervention in Argentine markets. He wouldn't say specifically what tools he wants to use for that, but he said that the need for an intervention will depend on the market conditions. And he said that nothing would happen until that meeting in New York tomorrow. So we'll see whether the Treasury Secretary wakes up in the morning and feels like he needs to intervene there or not, given what we saw in the Argentine market today throughout the day. Clearly the message was received, though, that the United States stands by Argentina and you see that jump in the market there as market participants realize that the treasury is standing there, as they, as they used to say, with a big bazooka ready to go. And in this case, whether they have to use it or not will be a question for tomorrow.

Melissa Lee (18:07)

Melissa yeah, Eamon, thank you. Amy Javers. It wasn't just the Merval, by the way. The pesos surged also on this notion that there is a US Government backstop now for Argentinian assets, emerging market specialists.

Karen Fineman (18:19)

Well, and if it was 25 years ago when I started really getting my teeth cut in emerging markets, you know, this kind of a headline would have meant 40% in Argentina and IMF tranche meant everything, meant hard currency chasing soft currency. And that was the backstop you needed. Ultimately, what we learned even from Argentina is buying back your currency in the open market cost them a billion dollars last week. And that's not necessarily a great move, nor should we be lending against that currency. We should be lending against a dollar dynamic that would be repaying that dollar dynamic. This is a president that cares very much about doing good trade deals. I don't think Argentina is strategically critical to us in Latin America. I think Brazil is the other side of this story and that may be part of this support. We know, we know Malay has definitely been a Trump support. There's a lot of fiscal austerity that I think actually is very good for Argentina. And we also know that there's been a little bit of a, of a political, let's just call it opposition with Brazil and an attack upon their former head of their former leader, Bolsonaro.

Tim Seymour (19:20)

I think one of the reasons gold had the day that it had is probably on the back of this headline. And you know, if you want to be long, a way to be long. Mercado libre. Did I say that?

Melissa Lee (19:28)

Melly, Melly.

Tim Seymour (19:29)

Melly.

Melissa Lee (19:30)

Nice.

Tim Seymour (19:30)

Argt is probably 25, 26% me ally and that's came off from 90 and change in May to current levels. I mean, if you want to play it, and I think you can, it's through argt.

Dan Nathan (19:41)

Yeah, it's just kind of interesting, like what sort of precedent this might set. If you think about this trade war that we have with, you know, 150 nations right now and how, how few of them have really been settled. I mean, this is a country that we export maybe nine, $10 billion worth and import maybe seven or eight or something like that just doesn't seem like that sort of important or at least like, you know, systemically Sort of important. So what's the precedent sets, how many of these other folks are going to come in and bail out if we have to? I can't imagine that any problems in Argentina would really be a huge effect to our economy here in terms of.

Melissa Lee (20:12)

Like any sort of critical mineral. I mean they have a lot of lithium but that's not a reason why we would consider them strategically important. No, I think they're political standing.

Karen Fineman (20:22)

No, I think there are a fair amount of mining assets and if you look across both copper, pgm, those dynamics, I think it's a very important place, guys. I mean there are places to get exposure to Argentina. Some of the European banks, you know, bbva, Santander, they have huge business. Latin America, that's where they are getting a lot of growth. I'm invested in Mali, bba, BBVA and Santander and Idevo. I think it's a not a bad place to be investing. I would just be careful to say it's game on. It's not game on.

Melissa Lee (20:51)

Coming up, Apple going green. The stock now positive for the year after its latest iPhone launched. The read on sales this weekend of the next move for the tech giant. Plus in contract, the real estate deal Getting two stocks moving big today. Whether there's more consolidation coming for the space, do not go anywhere. Fast money's back into.

Karen Fineman (21:12)

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

Dr. Ashish Jha (21:24)

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Melissa Lee (22:39)

Welcome back to fast money. Apple shares climbing back into positive territory for the year. The last Mag7 name to do so as early data suggests strong demand for its latest iPhones. A report from bank of America says US sales of the new models during the first weekend unit were nearly double that of the iPhone 16. And JD.com says that in China, sales of the first minute of launch were greater than those in the entire first day for last year's model. That's a massive improvement, Dan.

Dan Nathan (23:07)

Yeah, so for the last couple of years, iPhone units have not been growing. We know that this year it might be able to eke it out. Let's see what some of this data suggests here over the next few months. We're not going to actually get a real read for that. I mean the good news is this, right there's probably a few hundred million iPhones. We keep hearing this again and again. They're over four years old. And you can make the argument that these phones are somewhat iterative. There is a new phone, this Air that's pretty sleek, which you have. I have it. It's pretty dope. The iOS works really nice in it and this is the first major hardware upgrade or like real important I think.

Karen Fineman (23:42)

Wait line overnight, no sleeping back.

Dan Nathan (23:45)

Here's one thing for those folks.

Karen Fineman (23:46)

Literally get a right holding your place in line.

Dan Nathan (23:50)

Buy them. I mean I don't know how they're so they're checking out the lead times of these sorts of things. So when J.D. says that you are we're going to trust J.D. i don't know why what their incentives are one way or another to come out and say that. But the point is this. There's lots of iPhones. We know that they don't really have an AI offering on the phone. The thing is either does Samsung or the Google phones that much. You guys have been all over and I'm pointing to Karen and Tim. I was a bit pessimistic about an upgrade cycle but again, we don't know. I think the stock has had more to do with rotation within the Mag 7 also. So if you go back and look that I don't know that first week of August when Tim Cook, you know, kind of scampered into the White House, gave Trump a big piece of gold or something like that. Stock's been up 25%, you know what I mean? So I think that has had a good bit to do with it.

Melissa Lee (24:33)

Return on that gold is. Yeah, it's really fantastic.

Guy Adami (24:36)

Well, thanks for saying, but I haven't loved Apple actually. I think Tim Tim is Tim.

Dan Nathan (24:43)

I'll take it.

Karen Fineman (24:44)

But, but yes, you know the part of the story here and Dan, I appreciate the dynamic. In fact the question is didn't we know that like before the 17 came out that they people had to upgrade in other words and I, and you've been consistent on this. I'm not saying you, I'm saying like when the world is suddenly come around. I've been most surprised by the street coming around upgrading Apple. Now JP Morgan's note talks about lead times and says lead times at 26 days. We can now do the math. We know Apple's telling their suppliers to, to kick up production and that demand is significantly higher. Therefore they're upgrading 2026 revs by 7% and 2027 by 10%. So I get that. But we've all said, everybody here has talked about Apple's installed base and everyone has said that people are going to continue to buy. And the only thing I've been saying differently is I don't think that there's any AI priced into it. And why wouldn't the company that dominates the smartphone business, especially in the United States rates be the one that serves it up. So I think it's going to go higher. I think some of this is rotation too and at this point it's you know, a 260 close and I think you've made a fresh new high and Apple at a time the market is in its best quarter of the year.

Melissa Lee (25:51)

There's one asterisk though to all of this and that is some analysts are pointing out that the lead time for the more expensive pro models and air models are actually short. And so the demand for the higher end models, the higher market bring down the asp. Exactly. Not as strong as for the lower.

Tim Seymour (26:05)

End market might give them a pass though, you know that's the other thing. So margins have been slowly improving and I think, I think market like listen, I have not been bullish. I don't want to pretend I have been but the market might look past that. But with all that said, even with the numbers that get ratcheted up, even when you factor that in, it's still a company that's going to trade now 30 ish, 31 times next year's numbers which, which again high single digit EPS and revenue growth. I mean it's expensive at these levels.

Guy Adami (26:31)

I agree it's expensive. And there are other stocks that are more directly specifically AI that trade cheaper.

Karen Fineman (26:38)

Actually but we had this conversation. I'll just say the stock's been expensive for five years. So. So why is the market not punished it, especially during periods where it should have really been under some pressure.

Dan Nathan (26:47)

All right, I must say this. Of all the Mag 7 or as I call them the Fateful Eight, this is the one I would load up on if you did have like no.

Tim Seymour (26:54)

No, stop the press.

Dan Nathan (26:57)

You had a material like a 15, 20% sell off which could happen if you think about so the upgrade cycle will be intact. They haven't even announced how they're going to integrate. Maybe it's Gemini, maybe it's OpenAI that sort of thing. The 20 year anniversary of the iPhone is next year. The iPhone air is a preview of the hardware and I think if they ever get this AI component together, I think it will be a runaway hit here in the U.S. but like I've been saying for two years, it's a 2026 thing.

Melissa Lee (27:24)

There's a lot more fast money to come. Here's what's coming up next.

Karen Fineman (27:28)

From real estate rivals to roommates, two.

Dr. Ashish Jha (27:31)

Brokerage giants teaming up the deal details.

Karen Fineman (27:34)

And what's next in store for the housing? And speaking of partnerships, the AI space is joining forces as well. How Nvidia and OpenAI are coming together to beef up the data center build out. You're watching Fast Money live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. We're back right after this.

Edward Jones Narrator (28:01)

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Melissa Lee (29:05)

Welcome back to Fast Money Stocks Starting the week off in the green, the Dow S and P and NASDAQ all notching record closes Crypto though pulling back Bitcoin dropping and now around $112,000. Crypto related names like Strategy and Coinbase also lower. Disney meantime, announcing Jimmy Jimmy Kimmel Live will return to the air tomorrow after the company suspended the late night show host last week. And shares of Disney off their lows of the session but still down over a percent. Major deal in the real estate space. Tell you about brokerage giant Compass agreeing to buy rival Anywhere Real Estate, the parent of Coldwell Banker and Century 21 in an all stock deal worth $1.6 billion. The merger would create a new industry giant with an enterprise value of about $10 billion including debt anywhere surging nearly 46% on the news. What do you want to trade here, Karen?

Karen Fineman (29:53)

Trader's choice, Karen, get in there.

Guy Adami (29:54)

Well, Zillow is down a lot today. Yeah, right. I do like Zillow. I think they're really a force waiting for rates to be lower for the home sales business to pick up. But I think it was sort of excessively sold off today.

Melissa Lee (30:10)

Yeah.

Guy Adami (30:10)

So I'd rather.

Karen Fineman (30:11)

Oh wow.

Melissa Lee (30:13)

It wasn't even a chance.

Karen Fineman (30:14)

You know what the girls get away but she gets Girls are favorite on this show.

Melissa Lee (30:17)

I know you.

Tim Seymour (30:19)

However, it's a different story, much different story. So I'll try to play the game correctly. Look at the home building style. Look at the move in Lennar today and we've tried to been pointing this out. A lot of people want to be optimistic about the homebuilders. I'm not one of those people. I'll probably wind up being wrong. But in the short term it's working out and I think you're going to see a replay of last fall when all the homebuilders rallied into the rate cut and they all sold off in the aftermath. They've all done the same thing into this rate cut and at least for the last four or five, four trading days or so, they're starting to sell off. And it's not just a rate story. I think the employment picture has a lot to do with it.

Karen Fineman (30:51)

I'm going to take the weaker dollar today for 100 jacks and say that that has ramifications for a lot of investing. International continues to outperform. But gold, I feel like we talk about it every day. I think we should talk about it every day. Gold is outperforming the s and P40% to 13% and gold miners are outperforming the metal by a beta of two and a half, which is what they do in a bull market. And I think there's a lot more of it. Again, New Newmont is buying back shares. There's all kinds of things going on in terms of just even fundamentals at the company delivering free cash flow yield yields.

Guy Adami (31:22)

One thing I forgot to add on Zillow, they have a very, very good retail rental business as well, which is important.

Melissa Lee (31:28)

Coming up, an AI power play. How Nvidia is teaming up with Open Air to boost the build out of data centers and the impact it is having on the rest of the space. The details and fast money returns. Welcome back to Fast Money. Nvidia closing at a record high, jumping almost 4% today. The move comes after the chip giant announced plans invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI's massive data center build outs. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang along with OpenAI leader Sam Altman and Gene Brockman joining CNBC's John Fort on halftime report today.

Dr. Ashish Jha (32:07)

This is the biggest air infrastructure project in history. This is the largest computing project in history.

Dan Nathan (32:14)

Well, the reason for that is because.

Dr. Ashish Jha (32:16)

Computing demand is going through the roof for OpenAI. You know ChatGPT is the single most.

Karen Fineman (32:23)

Revolutionary AI project in history.

Melissa Lee (32:27)

For more, let's bring in Gene Munster, Managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management. His firm owns shares of Nvidia. Gene, great to have you with us. Hello. To help us make sense of this and I understand that there's not a final deal yet inked, but how do you get excited to the tune of about 4% to Nvidia's market cap, about Nvidia paying $100 billion over time to OpenAI for OpenAI to then buy approximately that much probably in GPUs.

Gene Munster (32:57)

The reason is that this arrangement basically is a signal that the rest of Azure and what meta is going to be spending, aws, xai, anthropic, all basically need to continue to spend. And so. So from my perspective, the majority of the move in Nvidia today is more about the sustainability of that spending and what it means for those companies to continue to spend. Now Jensen needs to be a little bit careful because he's investing in a customer. He basically has six customers that account for just over 60% of revenue. So you got to be careful. But I think that's the simple reason, Melissa, why Nvidia was trading up and I want to put just a quick, quick context on that is after the last earnings period, Meda guided for their capex to be up 47% September 4th with the hot mic and the whole commentary from Zuck at the White House. If you back out their U.S. operating expenses. It implies that they're going to be growing their capex by 45% for the next couple years. You look at the other hyperscalers, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, they're all looking for an average up 7% over the next for next year. And so what this all means is this endorsement from Nvidia is telling the market that this, there's going to be a bigger hardware build out for longer.

Guy Adami (34:20)

So that's an interesting spin on it that the race is on, everybody needs to up their arms spend. But I'm curious why the deal isn't inked yet. So why, why do it now when there's still a lot to be sold sort of hammered out? Why announce it now?

Gene Munster (34:35)

Yeah, I don't know what the, you know why they would kind of pre announce this. I think that we have seen some of these announcements look at like the Stargate announcement, kind of the substance of how it ultimately played forward that was a little bit different because when you talk about an announcement with a consortium versus a specific or two specific companies. So my sense that surprised me too. Why not just wait till it's announced? It may be related to some other announcements that Nvidia is trying to make. You know what's going on behind the scenes. And I think that's on the table for Nvidia to make announcements and investments in other companies too. I mean they've just did intel and so there may be something around some of the timing. It did surprise me. But a lot of times there's things going on behind the scenes that make sense a few weeks down the road.

Dan Nathan (35:21)

Hey Gene, you know you just mentioned maybe it gives them the opportunity to invest in other companies. They've invested in over 100 startups in the last last few years. I know you track many of these are Neo clouds, many of their large language models, I mean the list goes on and on. And when you think about how they're just kind of hitching their wagon to open air here, doesn't there present some risk? You just said 60% concentration among these customers. You know they're basically vendor financing. I mean they're basically investing in these companies. So they will turn around and buy these chips and it wouldn't take much of a slowdown to see massive reverberations across the entire tech community. Because is outside a data infrastructure, spending or data center, there's really not a lot going on. So I just worry about the slightest downturn. Nvidia seems to be like an accident waiting to happen.

Gene Munster (36:05)

So the key words with what you described, right, there was a potential slowdown, and that's what this ultimately comes down to. Jensen, in his comments to cnbc, talked about this acceleration of growth or in this massive need for computer. And if, in fact, that ends up playing forward like these big companies believe it will, then we're not going to see a slowdown. We'll see growth rates higher than expected. If that doesn't happen, if for some reason there's a new deep SEQ or that we can train these models with less powerful GPUs, I don't think that that's going to happen. But if that does happen, then you're going to see some these stocks are going to go down meaningfully. And so that's that's the beauty of this. I think ultimately your view on this announcement comes down to, I think, a broader view on how you feel about AI, how early we are in AI. And I would point to this concept. I go back to this quote from Satya Nadella back in April when he said that he believes that AI is going to solve the most complex problems in the world today. That's not what AI is doing. It's a chatbot. And ultimately, if if that vision comes to fruition of solving the most complex problems in the world, I don't think we'll see a slowdown.

Melissa Lee (37:19)

Gene, great to have you with us. Thanks. Gene munster, we do have some breaking news. We want to get to Angelica Peebles on a response from the maker of Wellcoverin, one of the drugs President Trump and HHS Secretary RFK Jr. Were talking about at that event. ANGELICA.

Angelica Peebles (37:35)

Hey, Mel. Well, the FDA is saying that they are going to move forward with trying to approve leucovorin for the treatment of some of the symptoms of autism. Now, of course, GSK made the brand name version of that drug, but they pulled that off the market in 1997 and now it's really all generics. And a GSK spokesperson telling me that GSK has no intention to market that drug. Even if the FDA does go ahead and change that label to use it for the treatment of autism, they really just need that main drug, the label, to update so that it can then trickle down to the generics. So that's why it's important. But GSK on its own has no plans to market it. That stock up about 2%, but think it's important for people to know exactly where GSK stands on that.

Melissa Lee (38:19)

MEL yeah, that is important. ANGELICA thank you. Angelica Peebles, Coming up, Buffett unplugging why Berkshire Hathaway has sold out of its stake in China's BYD and how that name stacks up in the country's EV race. Fast money's back in 2000 welcome back to Fast Money. Shares of BYD down nearly 4% today after news this weekend that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has completely exited its position in the Chinese EV maker. Berkshire invested 230 million in BYD back in September 2008 and has reaped gains of over 4,000% since. For more on BYD and Asian markets, let's bring in CNBC's Eunice Yoon. Eunice.

Eunice Yoon (39:06)

Hey, Mel. Well, BYD attempted to tamp down some of the concerns about Buffett's exit, posting on social media that Berkshire stake had dropped below 5% last June. So under Hong Kong exchange rules, this means that the company no longer has to disclose any changes to its holdings. Things so BYD said in stock investments, buying and selling is normal practice. We thank Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett for their recognition of byd. We also appreciate their investment support and partnership over the past 17 years. Here's to long term investments. Now, Berkshire hasn't said why it sold out, but this decision had come amid very high US China tensions when BYD also has been facing international pushback along with other Chinese carmakers because of concerns about overcapacity in EVs as well as other cars. And then at home, there's cutthroat competition when it comes to EVs and that's led to a series of, number of, a series of price cuts and a lot of concerns about the health, the financial health of the industry. BYD stock has underperformed the greater China Chinese markets up 7% in the past 12 months versus Hong Kong's 44%. And then in Shenzhen, it was up 28.8% compared to 63% for the broader market.

Melissa Lee (40:29)

Yeah, and obviously the competition at home is very intense, Eunice, but also abroad, I mean, as I understand it, in Europe, they, they went to the Berlin Auto show with a number of new models, trying to get market share there at a time when maybe Tesla is, is a little bit on the downswing or on the back foot. Yeah, absolutely.

Eunice Yoon (40:47)

The strategy of BYD as well as a lot of the other EV makers is to look at Europe and push into a market where they think it's not as competitive. They have a good chance. But again, they are facing a lot of concerns from governments over there as well. Of course, in the United States that The overcapacity issues here are now spilling out over in other countries and that China hasn't done enough to try to allow some of the EV makers that maybe shouldn't be around anymore to go bust.

Melissa Lee (41:16)

Meantime, Eunice, while we have you, which is such an honor, really, to have you on our show, it's so rare. I want to ask you about the Chinese stock market. It has been rallying, and I'm wondering if you're seeing the participation that we've seen by retail investors. We've seen in the past that enthusiasm, especially as the real estate market continues to struggle.

Eunice Yoon (41:36)

Yeah, there is enthusiasm for the stock market, I think, because of the current situation where a lot of people are wondering now, I can't put my money into the property sector. There aren't a lot of choices. I can't go overseas. So. So people are taking a second look at the stock market. And, you know, I spoke to an investor just this, this in the past couple, couple of days, and, and she, like so many others, are trying to put more of their money into the market. There is, though, of course, this big concern that people have about so many retail investors jumping into this market again, because Unlike in the U.S. here in China, the Chinese retail investors drive 90% of daily trade, as opposed to in the U.S. where it's 20% of the trade. So the markets are super volatile. And even though the government's making an effort to try to change that by encouraging more institutional money, and just yesterday or on Monday, the financial chiefs have been signaling a lot, saying that we're expanding our circle of friends, meaning foreign investors are coming in and trying to signal that this is a good thing. Because of the nature of this market, it's so much, much more sensitive to booms and busts.

Melissa Lee (42:52)

Yep. Eunice, great to see you. Thank you. Eunice Yun in Beijing for us. Dan, just quickly on byd, what's your take here?

Dan Nathan (42:58)

I'll just say is that, remember when they were selling, that's Buffett, Apple, literally, they sat on this stock, bank of America, and then once they were out, it really kind of popped here. So I think what Eunice just said about market share, I think that was one of the big issues there as far as just all the competition in China and the price war.

Guy Adami (43:15)

How about Charlie Munger with a huge, huge home run? You wouldn't have thought that that would be how we do it. But, but extraordinary.

Melissa Lee (43:22)

Coming up, Pfizer bulking up on slimming down, how the company's latest acquisition impacts the obesity drug battle. That is next. More Fast Money in two.

Dr. Ashish Jha (43:34)

This December.

Karen Fineman (43:35)

Join the celebration in Times Square. CNBC opens its doors for an exclusive in person experience at the iconic NASDAQ market site in New York City. Fast Money Live trading the holidays. Join Melissa Lee and the team of traders live and on air for an all access celebration unwrapping trades, trends and.

Dr. Ashish Jha (43:54)

Tips to ring in the new year. Fast Money Live trading the holidays December 11th.

Karen Fineman (44:00)

Get your tickets now at CNBC events.com fastmoney.

Melissa Lee (44:07)

Welcome back to Fast Money Shares. A biotech company Medcera having their best day ever after Pfizer said it would buy the weight loss drug maker for up to $7.3 billion. Pfizer will pay 4,750 a share. That's more than a 40% premium to Friday's close with the possibility of an additional 2250 a share if Medsara achieves certain metrics. Pfizer scrapped its most recent weight loss drug candidate in April after discontinuing a different pill in 2023. It's paying money. The stock finished flat. I mean, that's a small victory there.

Karen Fineman (44:37)

I think it's great. I also think what they articulated with this message was they'll pay even more. They structured the deal that for success for both parties. Both parties win, everybody wins. The fact that they are focused on key therapeutic areas is something that I, I want to hear as a Pfizer shareholder. I believe that they were. This is an important, important area, especially five months after they scrapped their own drugs that were working on glp. So I think it's great news. They paid a lot. They didn't pay more than they should relative to the opportunity here. Hang in there. Hang in there, Pfizer folks. And in the meantime, you're paid 7% to be in a share that I think has been de risked.

Melissa Lee (45:15)

GPCR was your final trade. What day was?

Tim Seymour (45:19)

I mean, it's like you're inside my head sometimes now you are. It was last week and so I.

Karen Fineman (45:24)

Could feel it now.

Tim Seymour (45:24)

He used the word structure. Empty up there. Yes, but he used the word structure. See, he didn't even realize he did it. GPCR still works up next.

Melissa Lee (45:33)

Final trades, final trade time. Timothy.

Karen Fineman (45:47)

Did I do something wrong? Full name again? Timothy.

Guy Adami (45:49)

I feel like it's only 38, as you know.

Karen Fineman (45:55)

What do we call apples? Palm. Palm to terrace. Apples of the earth. It's going higher.

Melissa Lee (45:59)

That's a potato.

Guy Adami (46:00)

But Karen, Citibank are selling some upside calls. The one said nice run for city.

Dan Nathan (46:08)

I think Tim and Karen's Pfizer has been de risk hi Mel, the glasses.

Tim Seymour (46:14)

Are fire emoji 10 view by the.

Melissa Lee (46:16)

News thanks for watching. Fast Mad Money starts right now.

Edward Jones Narrator (46:23)

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 affiliate, 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 Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University, we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals like business management, strategic planning, and effective communication, and you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella Eduardo.