← CNBC's "Fast Money"
CNBC's "Fast Money"
Mag7 Hiding Potential Market Trouble… And Expectations Ahead Of Trump-Xi Meeting 5/8/26
00:46:52
Stocks hitting fresh record highs, and notching a sixth straight week of gains, but could there be some trouble brewing under the surface? How stocks are holding up this earnings season when the Mag7 aren’t carrying the weight, and if the lagging sectors can keep up with the AI & tech trade. Plus Intel surges after an Apple deal, the strong memory for one ETF that’s attracting lots of options activity, and what to expect out of President Trump’s meeting next week with China’s Xi Jinping. Fast Money Disclaimer
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- [00:00]
Melissa Lee
What does it mean to live a rich life? It means brave first leaps, tearful goodbyes and everything in between. With over 100 years experience navigating the ups and downs of the market and of life, your Edward Jones financial advisor will be there to help you move ahead with confidence. Because with all you've done to find your rich, we'll do all we can to help you keep enjoying it. Edward Jones, Member, SIPC When Mother's Day
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- [01:02]
Melissa Lee
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. A big week for the chips trade with names like Micron, SanDisk and AMD all rising 20% or more. Can the AI driven rally keep its momentum or is there trouble brewing for these stocks? Plus, Apple continues its stealth rally. Gold prices get back off the map and the hottest ETF since bitcoin mania was at its peak. And the new craze among young workers income stacking. Gen Z taking on multiple jobs to supplement their incomes. What's behind the trend and the implications as it starts to seep into older generations? I'm Melissa Lee, come to you live from CDP at the nasdaq. On the desk tonight, Tim Seymour, Seagrass of Guy Adami and Bono and I said we start off with the air trade powering markets to new heights. The S and P and Nasdaq both closing at record highs again today, notching six week winning streaks. The AI surge in memory stocks fueling the fire there. Micron up 38% since Monday. Its best week since the financial cris. Sandisk up for a sixth week in a row. Intel posting its best week since the turn of the century. The Mag 7 having a strong run as well. Actually, turn of the century is not that long ago. Tesla and Nvidia each up over 8% since Monday. Google and Apple both gaining 4%. Investors seeming to shrug off continued uncertainty around the Iran war. But is the rest of the market keeping pace? 6Mag 7 stocks that have reported this quarter have seen earnings grow nearly 60% according to LSEG. Without them, the S and P is up less than 20%. Nvidia expected to have the single biggest impact on earnings growth when it reports in two weeks. So are the broader market gains masking trouble under the surface guy?
- [02:41]
Tim Seymour
Well, the earnings growth is there. Hello. I missed.
- [02:44]
Melissa Lee
Welcome back.
- [02:45]
Tim Seymour
Do you miss me?
- [02:45]
Megan Casella
It's nice.
- [02:46]
Melissa Lee
Were you gone?
- [02:46]
Dennis Unkovich
You know.
- [02:47]
Melissa Lee
Just kidding.
- [02:49]
Karen Finerman
You don't ask if somebody missed.
- [02:51]
Melissa Lee
I know, right?
- [02:52]
Karen Finerman
You know what?
- [02:54]
Tim Seymour
You know what, Timmy?
- [02:54]
Karen Finerman
Making sure you said you missed her.
- [02:56]
Tim Seymour
I did, but I was hoping for reciprocity.
- [02:58]
Karen Finerman
You're fishing.
- [02:59]
Tim Seymour
I was fishing. Anyway, I watched the network yesterday.
- [03:03]
Melissa Lee
Oh.
- [03:04]
Tim Seymour
I watched the squawk box Paul Tudor Jones was on. You're familiar with ptj and he actually, you know, he has some reservations, but he also said that, you know what, he's long these AI stocks and he thinks there's a lot more, not a lot more room, but he thinks there's another 25 or 30% and he got a lot of it today. So despite valuations which continue to be concerning, you look at intel, say what you want. I mean, we'll give them maybe 30% EPS growth. It's a stock that's going to earn maybe a buck and a half. Maybe a buck and a half. Trading at $125. I mean, that's not a hundred times, but you can do the math. So it's expensive. People say, you know what they're making the turns, they're flipping it from GPUs to CPUs. That's important. It is important. Is it that important in terms of valuation?
- [03:45]
Karen Finerman
Well, I think it's that important. If you are looking for reasons to upgrade. And again, you get back to this whole CPU to GPU ratio dynamic. Evercore has done a nice job with this Mark Lapas who talked about how we might have been one to eight, we could go to eight to. But more importantly for intel, the company is being run very differently. It's being run with better operating margins. They've cleaned up the balance sheet. There's no question. I mean, today's announcement may be an Apple deal, but on top of what you've got with Nvidia out there, what you've got out there with the US government, with Tesla, this is a story where I'm not saying you go in and chase intel and I have not been saying that for probably $60, but I do think there is an argument. And what we're seeing, and we saw this in Korea Last night, what's going on with Samsun and Hynix. And the memory names aren't expensive by forward multiples. And so I do think it is a day where if you're looking at your portfolio at home and if your top names are AMD and Memory and intel, fantastic. Your portfolio had a fantastic day. But my guess is there are a lot of people out there looking and say, hold on, son. Nasdaq was up 2.4% and this and that semis were even farther ahead of that. And there's a lot of flat out there, there's a lot of down. And I feel like on this Des, this week we talked about retail and the struggle and we had a fantastic payroll number today.
- [05:10]
Melissa Lee
So financials, utilities, industrials. I mean, I don't know if you
- [05:16]
Bono
go back five years, there's a handful of names that have been carrying this market for the last five years or so. It's prevalent. But back then, Nvidia, I think it was a lot more of a divergence back then where the other names were 6% growth, Nvidia was 60% growth. So I think now if you take away those three names, it's still 12% growth. Right? Is that where that was, where it was at? It was 12% that it doubled to 2427. So I do think that there's still some growth here that you can rely on. I wouldn't be a buyer of Nvidia, I wouldn't be a buyer of Intel. So I think the names that have spiked up dramatically. Intel's a sentiment trade. Now you have the US government behind it. Can it go higher? Of course it can. I wouldn't feel comfortable buying it here. I was long lower. I wouldn't touch it up here. Amd, though, has the same type of a spike on a chart. But as Tim said, Lisa SU talked about 1 to 8 CPU GPU that could go to 1 to 1. If that goes 1 to 1, then you really have forget about it going to 8 to 1. If it goes 1 to 1, then it's a huge tailwind still for a name like amd, who was just the second distant second to Nvidia.
- [06:30]
Melissa Lee
You know, Bono, we probably could have had this conversation and maybe we have had this conversation every week, every day, you know, once a week for the past six weeks. Because that's basically the timeframe of the semiconductor rally that we've seen. But it's worth doing because at this point we now have a new narrative. I mean, that's what, you know, Ben writes This Amelius was talking about yesterday on closing bell overtime is that the names that are participating now, the narrative has changed and so therefore you can get behind these names despite the huge run, you can get behind the intel because that narrative has changed compared to even say 6 weeks ago, all of a sudden you need CPUs. The memory narrative has changed because now there's a subscription business associated. So it's not as lumpy anymore. Would you get on board that or are you still worried about how far this group has run?
- [07:24]
Vano
Can I meet you in the middle? I do think that the narrative in the interim has changed. So the short to intermediate term certainly you talk about some of the recurring revenues. I think that's always healthy when you're looking at a company from top down. There is still a cyclical nature to these companies however and if you're concerned about capex and expansion then this still falls squarely within that. Now we're all talking about intel versus Nvidia and I think it's healthy in terms of us broadening out from like the core five or six names. But what we're seeing is still a rotation within technology versus a broadening out away from technology and that still speaks to the concentration risk. So yes, fine, if it's seven names now versus versus five names prior, that's, that's healthier on the margin, that's you know, positive. But what I would like to see is a broadening out and if you look at the equal weighted S, P or even if you look at Russell today, you're seeing that underperformance and I do think that that does start to, you know, kind of point to something that we're not seeing the expansion, we're not seeing the median S and P name still above that 200 day moving average and, and have that golden cross type of narrative that we'd like to see. If we were to say this is a risk on bull market next leg higher.
- [08:46]
Melissa Lee
Okay, so I mean that gets to the core question. I mean is AI and the gains made specifically in the AI space papering over some underlying weakness within the markets. You could have made that case though about the Mag 7 you could have made. I mean all along the way we're too concentrated, we're too cons and you would have missed out 40%. Should we just forget about that? Like why should we worry about that?
- [09:08]
Tim Seymour
You could I and I probably did make that argument 20, 30, 40% ago and it's been the wrong thing to do. I mean it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but it hasn't had any impact on the market. So I think those concerns are still there. I mean, a lot of people voiced similar concerns over the last couple of weeks, but they're unfounded in terms of what it means to the broader market.
- [09:26]
Karen Finerman
Well, $300 ago on micron, this conversation was being had. So, you know, I think this market is forcing a lot of investors and, and truly in terms of assessing where valuations are, they always matter, but we know they're not a timing mechanism. But really find me a name within mega cap tech and I'm even saying 100 billion or more, maybe with the exception of the software space where you've been burned by chasing momentum in the last three years. I mean, even at Tesla, which at times there's been absolutely the wrong time to buy Tesla. But when you're talking about companies that are fundamentally and secularly in the middle of something where the growth is there and even the hyperscalers, I know it's been disappointing for Microsoft shareholders. I know it's been a tough nine months for Meta shareholders. But over the long term, I get the sense, and this is certainly where we hear from retail, they're not vacating on these down moves. They're looking to add. And I think that that's part of where we are. And I think for people that are looking at the tech trade here and memory is the biggest test of this, I'm not sure you're going to be disappointed if you bought and it's Capex. Right.
- [10:33]
Bono
So if Capex starts to round over, I think that's probably the canary in the coal mine. When start to see the investment drip or flatten out, that's the time when the trade is over.
- [10:45]
Melissa Lee
The stocks will have moved already by then. By the time you see it actually
- [10:48]
Bono
roll over, I don't think it's a. Is it going. It's 700 billion, is it going to a trillion? So right now, if I was forced to make that call, I would say you should probably exit and go to things that haven't run up as fast.
- [11:05]
Melissa Lee
Oh, you said exponential. I'm a surprise, Ashley, because you're usually the one who's willing to ride something.
- [11:10]
Bono
Yeah, I think it's been.
- [11:11]
Melissa Lee
But you're saying let it ride.
- [11:12]
Bono
I think it's been a hell of a ride. I think you have to change horses. Bono and said I would get off the horse of Nvidia. I would get on a couple of the other ones.
- [11:19]
Melissa Lee
Meantime, job growth coming in better than expected in April nonfarm payrolls rose by 115,000 versus a 55,000 estimate. And while that suggests economic strength, consumer sentiment fell to a record low in May. The University of Michigan, which has been tracking the data since 1952, citing cost pressures from surging gas prices. Joining us for more, Jim Bianco, president of Bianch of Research. Jim, great to have you with us.
- [11:42]
Guy Adami
Thank you.
- [11:43]
Melissa Lee
You know, this is sort of the same conversation that we were having about the broader stock market and that AI is sort of papering over the various weaknesses. Headline numbers on all the economic data seem to be fine. Maybe it seems to be stronger than you expect, but then you see little pockets of weakness like this consumer sentiment number. And granted, normally, you know, markets don't move on consumer sentiment, but it's not just this. It's a commentary that we've heard out of corporate earnings about the consumer being stretched. I mean, Kraft, Heinz saying at the end of the month their consumers are running out of. I mean, at what point should we start paying attention to these sort of anecdotal and sort of these softer measures as opposed to the headline data which will paper over some of those weaknesses?
- [12:24]
Vano
It depends on who we are. If who is a politician, you should be panicked about this right now. If you're investors, maybe not yet. And what I mean by that is consumer sentiment at a 74 year low according to University of Michigan. That is the broad measure of lots of people. But let's remember according to Mark Zandi, that about half of all consumer spending that is done by the top 10% of income, they're doing fine, they're spending fine. The headline numbers will continue to look good and so they will power along all of the economic data higher. But the masses of people as expressed by the University of Michigan, consumer sentiment are very unhappy and as you pointed out, they're very unhappy about affordability. Prices are too high, there's too much inflation, there's too much accumulated inflation. What I just described is the K shaped economy and it's getting more K if anything. If I could use some bad English there.
- [13:23]
Tim Seymour
And Jim, as you know, Michigan typically skews towards inflation, as you just said, which is why it is where it is. And my question to you is the Federal Reserve finds themselves in a really awkward position. I think, I don't think they have a rate cut. I saw Steve Liesman today price in until September of 2027. And there's just as much chance now the rate hike as a rate cut. I mean, does it even matter? At this point?
- [13:45]
Vano
Well, it matters for the President because he's getting his new guy next week. Jay Powell's terms up one week from today and Warsh is going to come in and there's high expectations from the President. He's going to be cutting rates. And I don't think, Jay, Kevin Warsh not only can he make an argument to cut rates, I don't think he even has the votes at this point. He's got to get six other people on that committee to vote with him to cut rate. The Fed is on hold right now. But let's remember two months ago when the war started, we were pricing in two or three rate cuts. If this war continues to drag on and prices go up, there's an argument to be made by the middle end of the summer we could be talking about rate hikes at that point. You know, if the war ends and things settle down, then that'll go away. So we are moving in that direction towards rate hikes right now. But you're right, rate cuts are off the board for a long time.
- [14:34]
Karen Finerman
Jim. Tim, switching gears a little bit once again. We got right up to that 445 level in the 10 year and didn't break higher. We've talked often with you about the dynamics around the deficit, around refunding and some of these periods where we get the tra and sometimes it matters, sometimes it does. Not bad English on my own here. Sorry, where are you on this? I realized today was a day where the 10 year liked kind of what the payroll number taught us. Are we just missing seeing this move higher in rates? It's about to hit.
- [15:07]
Vano
Yeah. You know, for the last several years I've argued that the low in rates, probably the low for a decade OR 2, was August 2020. 50 basis points. That's not a hard call. It was 50 basis points. It can be harder to get lower than that. And I also don't think that the rate hike or the rate rise I'm talking about the 10 year yield ended when it went over 5% in October of 23. I still think we're going to go higher than that maybe over the next year or so. The last couple of years you're right. The 10 year yield has been 4 something. So it hasn't proven me right and it really hasn't proven you wrong. It's just kind of been sitting there sideways. I think what we're gonna see is we're gonna finally see that move higher. And the reason is the economy's doing well. You guys Were talking in the previous segment about earnings, about the stock market. You know, we had a decent payroll report today. The economy's doing well. We're just creating more inflation. And if you're creating more inflation with the economy doing well, then the path for yields, bond yields, is going to be higher. And I think we're probably going to see that 5% yield in the next year. Now that I've said that, I don't think it's a problem. I don't think that if we see the 5% yield, yeah, people in real estate business won't like it, but it's not going to be a drag on the economy because that's the natural rate that it should be doing is going up.
- [16:20]
Melissa Lee
Jim, good to see you. Thanks. Jim Bianco, Bianco RESEARCH. You think we see five?
- [16:25]
Bono
I mean, it's, it's obviously possible in this, Anything's possible in a spike. I just don't, I don't know. You know, with the supply issue that you're having, supply shock, there's nothing that the Fed can possibly do in its toolbox to handle a supply shock rate issue. If they do, they just make it harder. So Jim said 50% of the population is buying the goods and services right now. The bottom 50 are not that. So now they have a supply shock with gasoline at the pump. And then everything that they do to buy their livelihood is on an interest rate or on a card or they don't have, they don't have a house. So everything becomes more, less affordable for the bottom income earners if rates go up. So I understand what everyone's thinking about that we can't possibly have a rate cut. But I'm just not sure who it really helps. But I know who it hurts. It hurts the bottom income earners if rates stay where they are.
- [17:23]
Tim Seymour
I don't think, I mean, listen, I don't think they're going to move. I think the right move is to do no move at all. And I think Kevin is probably smart enough and as Jim mentioned, he's got to get people to sign on anyway, either way. And you're not going to do it as the most divided Fed in history. But I will say, to Jim's point, I do think rates go higher. What the market's going to come to grips with is are rates going higher because things are getting better or because there's a, a debt problem? And that's the rub. Right now the market's saying higher rates are okay because there's growth.
- [17:50]
Karen Finerman
I think there's you know, back to both rates and consumer and where the market is and even jobs. I mean, I look at Home Depot and Lowe's and I say I think there's an opportunity there. I know we've talked about the consumer being out of some powder here. I think sentiment has gone far past where the fundamentals are. And I think those are names that
- [18:08]
Guy Adami
are worth looking at here.
- [18:09]
Melissa Lee
All right, let's get the latest developments out of Washington on the Iran war. Let's get to Megan Casella at the White House.
- [18:14]
Megan Casella
Megan Meliss, Also, a somewhat quieter day here as the United States awaits Iran's response to its latest peace proposal. That was that 1 page 14 point memo to end the war that Iran said earlier this week that it was evaluating. Now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this morning that the US had been expecting a response today, but as of now, no word yet here that that's been received. In the meantime, the fragile ceasefire that's been in place for a month now appears to remain in place. That's despite the US And Iran exchanging attacks for the second straight day today. The US Military saying this morning it had struck two Iranian oil tankers in the Gul. What you're seeing footage of here, it was a step that U.S. officials said was necessary to enforce the blockade on vessels entering or leaving Iran. And those attacks came after the two sides exchanged fire also on Thursday, each claiming at the time that the other side fired first. President Trump, though, said the ceasefire was intact and downplayed those attacks, describing them as just a love tap. Melissa. So maybe exceedingly fragile at this point. The ceasefire is still in place.
- [19:14]
Melissa Lee
Strange thing to call, I mean love
- [19:17]
Karen Finerman
tap when I hate guy with a love tap.
- [19:19]
Melissa Lee
Anyway, you know, sorry. It's almost not surprising, Meghan, that the bar for violating the ceasefire would be so high given the Xi Trump summit next week. I mean, that ceasefire has to hold for that summit to take place. And both sides, particularly our side, really wants that summit to take place.
- [19:38]
Megan Casella
Absolutely. The president does not want to have to postpone that meeting again. He already did it once because of this war. And he also does not want to go into it with a weaker hand. And he thinks the war ongoing would give him something of a weaker hand. He wants to go in with as much leverage as he can with President Xi, wants to be focused on that meeting. Some of our colleagues in China today were reporting that while the president and the US Wants to really focus on trade, Iran is going to be undercutting that because, of course, it has to be a major topic. So at least the US wants to do as much as they can to try to minimize it and not make it front of mind. Clearly the bar for what will amount to a violation of the ceasefire is pretty high at this point. It was sort of remarkable to hear US officials multiple times this week lay out the number of attacks that Iran has made since the ceasefire began, but then still say none of that rose to the level of restarting military operations. It's not clear at this point what would rise to that level since we have seen fire exchange back and forth. We just have to assume, I guess that it's higher than we thought it was and that that bar is likely to stay high in the near term at least.
- [20:36]
Melissa Lee
Right, Megan? Thanks, Megan Casella. And that bar being high has enabled the markets to climb to new highs, right? I mean that's part of it. It's like, like, okay, so that's not a violation. That's not a violation. That's not a violation. We're in, we're in a good place
- [20:50]
Tim Seymour
here on that front. I mean we've learned how to deal with $100 oil. The market doesn't seem to care about that. Geopolitical is not a big deal. The meeting I think is a big deal. And what comes out of the meeting and is Taiwan some sort of bargaining chip that either side tries to use? That to me is the rub going into this meeting.
- [21:07]
Melissa Lee
Coming up, Apple ripening to record stock climbing to all time highs as the company reportedly taps a new chip maker with the latest partnership. Could mean for the iPhone maker next. Plus gold's glittering gains of precious metal rebounding this week and taking miners along for the ride. Will debate how to play the pop straight ahead. Don't go anywhere. Fast money's back into
- [21:28]
Karen Finerman
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Bono
It feels good to Geico.
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- [23:04]
Melissa Lee
Welcome back to Fast Money. Apple rising 2% to all time highs on reports that the company struck a preliminary deal for intel to manufacture chips to power its devices. Up until now, Apple had relied on Taiwan Semi to produce all of its chips. Apple up nearly 5% since Monday, its best week since February. It is now up seven weeks in a row, its longest streak since 2023. Vadouin Has Apple awoken?
- [23:30]
Vano
I think it has. You know, you know, they were definitely laggards into that massive upward AI trajectory and we kind of batted around whether or not it was smart or thinking on their part or whether or not they were behind the ball. Well, after what we saw from Metto, it seems that investors are willing to reward companies that have shown capital discipline. That company with the service growth, I think puts Apple squarely back at the top of the investor list. In terms of the news today around this preliminary deal with Intel, I think this is smart broadening terms of their supply chain constraints and we're talking about the China summit coming up next week. Well, if there is anything, any wobble there whatsoever, you're seeing a company proactively look to onshore and diversify away. So I think it's a net positive.
- [24:15]
Melissa Lee
Yeah, aggressive.
- [24:16]
Bono
Yeah, I agree. I think to sub out all these things is a huge advantage for them. They don't have the spend as Bono once said and early losers, late winners. I think that's what you're looking at with Apple, where they just don't have to. They didn't have to have the deep pockets, although they do. So they have the capability of pivoting whenever they want.
- [24:34]
Melissa Lee
Though it's unclear what chips intel would make or what chips intel would be capable of making in terms of capacity to make the chips.
- [24:41]
Tim Seymour
But right now, details don't matter. In today's world you get headlines and you go with them. I mean I'm not going to pretend I'm in bullish on Apple. I have not. Tim has. But on April 20 when it was announced Tim Cook was stepping down, we said you know what, 10 days before earnings, it probably augurs well for the stock. And here we are. The question is, is this sort of a new range? The prior all time high I think 284 back in December. Do we go back and test that which is not far away but clearly the market likes what they're hearing right now.
- [25:07]
Melissa Lee
Is it expensive at this point?
- [25:09]
Vano
On multiple.
- [25:10]
Melissa Lee
Yeah, yeah.
- [25:11]
Karen Finerman
But I'm not sure it matters. I know that sounds crazy but again there's nothing in the last report that we heard that also doesn't hear that they're not totally in charge of the manufacturing at a time when memory. So again I'm just going to echo the same thing. This is about flexibility. This is about controlling the supply chain, keeping it in here. Especially when, when Taiwan semi if that's ever a problem. It's a big problem right now. It helps.
- [25:34]
Melissa Lee
And playing nice with Trump and the administration, right? I mean smart sue, right. The administration bought intel at 20 bucks a share. So good trade. Yeah, good trade, nice trade. A lot more fast money to come. Here's what's coming up next.
- [25:48]
Karen Finerman
A rally worth its weight in gold. What's driving the precious metals latest rebound and is it ready for a breakout? New highs plus big shots head to Beijing. We set the table for next week's Trump Xi summit and what investigators can expect to hear from the lineup of CEOs in tow. You're watching Fast MONEY live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. We're back right after this.
- [26:20]
Melissa Lee
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Melissa Lee
confident that you could do something that hadn't been done before?
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Guy Adami
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Melissa Lee
Trailblazing women, changing the game One of my favorite pieces of advice Think about what your boss's boss needs. Leadership can look in many, many different forms.
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Megan Casella
It really does come down to just trusting yourself. Life is short and you just gotta
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Guy Adami
think big to accomplish big things.
- [27:37]
Melissa Lee
Julia Boorstin hosts CNBC Changemakers and Power Players New episodes every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to Fast Money. Apple rising 2% to all time highs on reports that the company struck a preliminary deal for intel to manufacture chips to power its devices. Up until now, Apple had relied on Taiwan semi to produce all of its chips. Apple up nearly 5% since Monday, its best week since February. It is now up seven weeks in a row, its longest streak since 2023. Vonwin Has Apple awoken?
- [28:13]
Vano
I think it has. They were definitely laggards into that massive upward AI trajectory and we kind of batted around whether or not it was smart or thinking on their part or whether or not they were behind the ball. Well, after what we saw Fameto it seems that investors are willing to reward companies that have shown capital discipline. That company with the service growth I think puts Apple squarely back at the top of the investor list. In terms of the news today around this preliminary deal with Intel. I think this is more smart broadening in terms of their supply chain constraints. And we're talking about the China summit coming up next week. Well, if there is anything, any wobble there whatsoever, you're seeing a company proactively look to onshore and diversify away. So I think it's a net positive.
- [28:59]
Melissa Lee
Yeah, aggressive.
- [29:00]
Bono
Yeah, I agree. I think to sub out all these things is a huge advantage for them. They don't have the spend as Bono and said and early losers, late winners. I think that's what you're looking at with Apple where they just don't have to. They didn't have to have the deep pockets, although they do. So they have the capability of pivoting whatever they want.
- [29:18]
Melissa Lee
Though it's unclear what chips intel would make or what chips intel would be capable of making in terms of capacity to make the chips.
- [29:25]
Tim Seymour
But right now details don't matter in today's world. You get headlines and you go with them. I mean I'm not going to pretend I'm in bullish in Apple. I have not. Tim has. But on April 20 when it was announced Tim Cook was stepping down, we said, you know what ten days before earnings. It probably augurs well for the stock. And here we are. The question is is this sort of a new range the prior all time high I think 284 back in December. December. Do we go back and test that which is not far away but clearly the market likes what they're hearing right now.
- [29:51]
Melissa Lee
Expensive at this point on multiple.
- [29:54]
Karen Finerman
Yeah, yeah but I'm not sure it matters. I know that sounds crazy but but again there's nothing in the in the last report that we heard that also doesn't hear that they're not totally in charge of the manufacturing at a time when memory so again I'm just going to echo the same thing. This is about flexibility. This is about controlling the supply chain keeping it in here especially when Taiwan semi if that's ever a problem. It's a big problem right now.
- [30:17]
Melissa Lee
It help and playing nice with Trump and the administration. Right. I mean smart too. Right. The administration bought intel at 20 bucks a share. So good trade. Yeah. Nice trade. A lot more fast money to come. Here's what's coming up next.
- [30:32]
Karen Finerman
A rally worth its weight in gold. What's driving the precious metals latest rebound and is it ready for a breakout to new highs plus big shots. Head to Beijing. We set the table for next week's Trump Xi summit and what investigators can expect to hear from the lineup of CEOs in tow. You're watching Fast MONEY live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. We're back right after this.
- [31:05]
Melissa Lee
Welcome back to FAST money. Gold starting to shine again this week. The precious metal running a four day winning streak on hopes of a US Iran peace deal and a weakening dollar. Gold is still down nearly 10 since the beginning of the war and more than 15% off its all time high. So is now the time to jump back in? Did you jump out? I think you've always been in.
- [31:24]
Karen Finerman
I did not jump out. I do think this is an opportunity for the gold miners and we're actually in earnings season and we're getting actually pretty good numbers. What we're hearing in terms of their operational leverage is that right now the inflationary aspects that were really hurting them back in 2223 and needed to wane before you had this breakout and this outperformance of gold miners I think is under control here. So AEM formerly I think was in guy's tube.
- [31:49]
Tim Seymour
Yeah. Clam Tim.
- [31:52]
Melissa Lee
How do you spell tube? Tim? No A in there.
- [31:55]
Karen Finerman
Of course not. Sorry. Just wanted to say it I guess. But I like miners here. Let's be clear. I understand this has been a risk on trade for many people. That's not my view here. My view here is I want to own gold miners long term.
- [32:08]
Tim Seymour
I agree with that. I mean if you look GDX sold off correctly in April like the commodity, but it's actually traded okay since in a gold market it's been sort of flat to maybe slight higher. So if gold were to stay at this price in perpetuity, which it won't, but if it were, I think gold miners are screaming by here.
- [32:25]
Bono
Miners usually outperform in a case three to one and we haven't seen that recently. And they're all sort of stacked up on, on top of each other. You have, you have gld, GDX and the junior miners all trading up around the same amount. If you think gold is going higher, I would, I would just go for the real beta and go for the junior miners as well.
- [32:45]
Melissa Lee
Coming up, approaching the summit, the countdown is on to next week's Trump. She sit down in Beijing from the Midwest Mideast war to trade the rare earth. We will talk all the key issues on the docket next. More Fast Money right after this.
- [33:01]
Karen Finerman
Missed a moment of fast. Catch us anytime on the Go follow the Fast Money podcast. We're back right after this.
- [33:17]
Melissa Lee
Welcome back to Fast Money. Stocks ending the week on a high note following the better than expected April jobs report. The Dow eking out a gain of 12 points. Both the S and P and Nasdaq is setting records with the Tech heavy index gaining 1.7%. Dell surging 13% after President Trump said at a press conference earlier today to quote go out and buy a Dell. That coming after he thanked Michael and Susan dell for their $6 billion donation to his Trump accounts initiat. Tesla charging 4% higher, bringing its gains for the week to nearly 10%. The stock now sitting at three month highs. Cybersecurity and cloud company Akamai jumping more than 26%. The company said a leading U S based frontier model provider has committed to invest $1.8 billion over seven years to its cloud infrastructure services and Moderna surging 12%. The company said it is researching vaccines to protect against hantaviruses after several infections and three deaths were reported aboard a cruise ship earlier this week.
- [34:12]
Vano
Week.
- [34:13]
Melissa Lee
Meantime, President Trump is set to travel to China next week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in what would be the first US presidential visit since 2017. The CEOs of Boeing, Citigroup, Nvidia and more are expected to join the trip with the Iran war expected to dominate the visit, our next guest says China could be in a better negotiating position than the U.S. dennis Unkovich joins us now. He's a partner in Meyer Ankovich and Scott. Dennis, great to have you with with us.
- [34:38]
Dennis Unkovich
Thanks for having me back.
- [34:39]
Karen Finerman
Melissa.
- [34:40]
Melissa Lee
You, you've actually got a few different reasons why China could be in the driver's seat next week. What is the what is the number one, though, in your view?
- [34:49]
Dennis Unkovich
We have what are called rare earth elements or rare earth minerals. And you and you just today had a great stock market where everything, all the tech stocks were up. They're all dependent on these rare earth minerals. The one thing that China has over the head of the United States is that they refine 80% to 90% of these rare earth elements. Now, they're not really rare earth. You can get them in Africa. China has half of them. We have them in the U.S. but right now, China, Xi Jinping could say, unless you do what I want, I can restrict the amount of rare earth minerals that are coming to these companies. And I think that's the one card. Whether he'll play it or not, Melissa, I don't know, but that's the one thing that the Chinese have over the Trump administration that next week they've had
- [35:36]
Melissa Lee
this bargaining chip forever. DENNIS I mean, I'm sort of exaggerating, but they've always had this sort of advantage in terms of rare earths. Why would there be any reason why now they would play that card?
- [35:48]
Dennis Unkovich
Their economy's really being hurt by the war in the Middle East, 50 to 60% of the oil and about a third of the natural gas that they have comes through there. And they, they one thing that China does have, they have the largest strategic oil reserve in the world. It's about 1.4 billion barrels, which is is about three times what the US has. But nevertheless, they really do need that energy. And I think if China was ever going to play the card, this would be the time to put it to
- [36:15]
Karen Finerman
the US DENNIS China always plays the long game. And my sense is that there's a the greatest objective here is call it tech, Internet superiority, certainly the digital world. What do you think they want to try to get out of the medium term here? Because again, we all understand what the headlines are going to look like going into this meeting, but we know what's been on the table for the last call it two years.
- [36:40]
Dennis Unkovich
The medium term is that the US should not unreasonably restrict the Chinese ability to develop their own technologies In a book I wrote a couple years ago, I Talked about A2 technology world. About two thirds of the technology globally now is from the west, generally the West. The Chinese have a third. Xi Jinping has done one thing since he came in in 2013. He has wanted to build up the ability to innovate, innovate technology in China. And that's what he's going to continue to do. And I think that they will not, I don't think they're going to pull this big card on the US now, but it has to be in the back of their minds. But unless they can get more oil and not deplete their reserves and secondly, that their technologies are not going to be blocked by the U.S. i think the Chinese really can play the hard game here.
- [37:26]
Tim Seymour
Dennis, does Taiwan come up in these conversations?
- [37:30]
Dennis Unkovich
That's my number two. The answer is yes. Xi Jinping has been obsessed with Taiwan. Taiwan has 24 million people. I've been there. It's a small country, but it is a thing that China says. We want it to be part of China. Now the US Government has said there is one China, but we think they have the right to have a different government. I think that because of the US Going into the straits and what's going on in Iran, this is an excuse for the Chinese to go to the South China Sea and to make more aggressive moves against Taiwan. And the Philippines are right down below there. So it's sort of like the US Went in and said, okay, this is what we're going to do. We're taking this policy. The Chinese are going to say, why can't we do this in the South China Sea? And that's going to be the next big problem.
- [38:20]
Melissa Lee
Well, I mean, it's, you know, there's an article, I think, in the Wall Street Journal citing Chinese military analysts. You know, that now would be the perfect time for China to actually seize Taiwan because our weaponry, our resources are depleted at this point. They're being sent to the Middle east and we have to rebuild stockpiles. I mean, do you think that could happen, or is China too interested in sort of being the elder statesman on the world stage and not engaging in that sort of conflict?
- [38:50]
Karen Finerman
Two answers.
- [38:51]
Dennis Unkovich
I think Xi Jinping is continually obsessed with taking over Taiwan. Secondly, we have a blue ocean navy where we can project power all over, but with the amount of strategic arms that we have depleted in a good way, I guess in Iran, if the Chinese were seeing, is the US Going to be weak, will they be able to stand up strongly in The Far east and the South China Sea as they were before. My answer is they're going to be much more confident now than they were before. Finally, they said by 2020, two years from now, 2027 or 2028, we're really going to look at Taiwan. If I'm Xi Jinping, I'm going to say maybe I can move that up just a little bit. Very good question. Thank you.
- [39:35]
Melissa Lee
Yeah. Dennis, great to speak with you. Thank you for the analysis.
- [39:38]
Karen Finerman
Thanks for having me.
- [39:39]
Melissa Lee
We've been talking about Taiwan for a long time. Maybe now the stars have aligned in the sense that we are not in the position to have a new conflict elsewhere. Right now.
- [39:49]
Tim Seymour
It's been one of my concerns for three years, but in terms of the market, it's been completely unfounded. There's no reason to be concerned about it through the lens of the market now. I don't think it means it's gotten any better. In some ways it's gotten worse. And I guarantee it comes up in one way, shape or form. Form. And maybe given what's going on, it becomes a chip that the Chinese play. And I don't think that's particularly market bullish.
- [40:10]
Melissa Lee
Speaking of chip, though, I mean, Taiwan semi is so crucial to the AI build out here. If China owned, when I say own, if they took over Taiwan in some way and Taiwan semi fell under their purview more completely than it may already be, that is trouble.
- [40:27]
Karen Finerman
Well, it's a big problem. And I know that we have to be really careful about thoughts that say, hey, why do we care so much about Taiwan? Well, we care about it from a sovereignty perspective, period, and respecting that. But there have been a lot of places in the world and a lot of lines that have been blurred of late. And my guess is there are probably a fair amount of people in this country that don't think it's as big of a deal as other people in this country do. Taiwan semi, however, is critical to US Strategic interests. And again, we just talked about Apple and Intel and why that that gets Apple in a much better place if they have some other place to go other than Taiwan. Semi.
- [41:08]
Melissa Lee
Vano, in your thoughts?
- [41:10]
Vano
Yeah, I think it's critical. I don't disagree in the least. I am not as concerned that this is actually going to escalate to that point. But in terms of posturing and negotiations, I do think that we could have been in a stronger position and China will probably find some way to insert that nuance.
- [41:28]
Tim Seymour
I just want to share with some people the prowess of Melissa Lee and just sort of the depth of her knowledge.
- [41:36]
Vano
Okay.
- [41:36]
Tim Seymour
We're breaking some news here on fast money. OG Anunoby will not be playing in game 3. Mel said 2 hours ago there's no way OG should be playing tonight. It's incredible.
- [41:46]
Karen Finerman
We were going to open the show with her analysis of that and, well, now you have it, Mel Lady, I
- [41:54]
Melissa Lee
try and keep that on the, you know, quiet. Yeah. Coming up. I don't even know who this person is. A rosy jobs report may have boosted stocks today, but a rise in second jobs among younger generations could be telling a different story about the labor market. All the details on income stacking when FAST MONEY returns. Welcome back to FAST money. The US Economy added more than twice as many jobs as expected in April. Non farm payrolls growing by 115,000. But full time jobs hit the lowest level since December 2020. The number of Americans working multiple jobs is on the rise. CNBC's Sharon Epperson joins us to discuss the trend and its implications. Sharon?
- [42:39]
Sharon Epperson
Well, Melissa, you know, there are layoff fears. There's the inflation squeeze, changes in the Labor Department. All of these factors are behind the desire to create more than one income stream of household income. Relying on what's known as income stacking or holding multiple jobs has become a growing trend since hitting a low in 2020. In April, there were about 8.4 million people in the US working more than one job, representing 5.2% of the workforce. About two thirds of Gen z workers ages 14 to 29 surveyed last year cited having multiple ways of earning money as essential for achieving financial security. It's also easier to start a side hustle these days with platforms like DoorDash and Uber for delivery, Fiverr and Upwork for freelancing and TaskRabbit for odd jobs. More people are also earning income as social media influencers. Meanwhile, economists are closely watching the share of multiple job holders and wage growth to determine whether this trend is a sign of increased demand for workers or consumers facing so much financial stress they need greater income. And you might want to take a look at my special May issue of the Month newsletter. It's out today. You can also sign up for the eight week series and monthly addictions to help you manage, grow and protect your income using the QR code right there. Or go to cnbc.com money101.
- [44:06]
Melissa Lee
Sharon, you're actually seeing this firsthand in your own household, aren't you? I mean, your son is an income stacker. He's one of these younger guys who needs multiple Sources of income.
- [44:14]
Sharon Epperson
I saw this word. I saw this word. I said, this is Dylan Farley. He is a registered behavior technician. He has a hip hop pop business that he's trying to do concert promotions, concept concert programming. He tutors in Mandarin. He also is trying to sell vinyls from his apartment. Whatever works to pay the rent. But they do need to have multiple incomes. It's expensive to live in Harlem. It's expensive to buy groceries these days. And I think Gen Z, he's 24, are among those who are really looking at ways to do this. Someone did tell me though, Melissa, isn't this just what we used to call mountain moonlighting? I don't know, but I like income stacking better.
- [44:53]
Melissa Lee
That sounds a little more official. My kids need a tutor, Sharon, so I might contact you later. Sharon Everson, right there.
- [45:04]
Karen Finerman
As surprise people would see when they they've got a leaky pipe. They get on TaskRabbit and Guy Adami shows up.
- [45:10]
Tim Seymour
You dox me. But it's true, I do show up.
- [45:12]
Melissa Lee
Yeah.
- [45:13]
Tim Seymour
With my tool belt.
- [45:14]
Karen Finerman
Yeah.
- [45:16]
Vano
Not a lot else.
- [45:18]
Melissa Lee
Anyway, This morning, Friday, I mean, well,
- [45:27]
Karen Finerman
that was a big laugh because he
- [45:28]
Bono
doesn't do this on Monday.
- [45:31]
Melissa Lee
Never on Monday. Monday through Thursday. But this really shows you sort of what is going on in the economy in terms of what jobs are available and how expensive things are that people feel the need that they need to do this in order to make ends meet.
- [45:44]
Karen Finerman
And where are the places that they're going to be cutting back. Boy, was the week, you know, whether it was shake shack, whether it was, it was, whether it was McDonald's. I mean, this was a week where we heard restaurants, especially in the line of fire in the bottom part of the K economy, not necessarily shake shack. But I think this is something we're, we're watching and I'm not sure these charts get a lot better.
- [46:04]
Melissa Lee
Coming up, momentum in memory. The hottest ETF since the bitcoin boom is on a tear as investors look to cash in on memory mania. Why traders can't get enough of this global chip play. Next, more fast money and tune. Welcome back to Fast Money. Roundhill's Dram Digital Memory ETF taking the market by storm, nearly doubling since its debut just over a month ago. It's also attracting options traders who want to get their hands on a few names they otherwise couldn't. Oliver Renick is on the CBO floor in Chicago with more on the action. Hail, Oliver.
- [46:40]
Guy Adami
Hey, Melissa. Dram did effectively open the floodgates for tech bulls to trade a handful of the hottest international names that had until now eluded them. Two of DRAM's 13 holdings, Samsung and SK Hynix make up more than half the entire strategy and both stocks more than doubled this year. So it's no surprise DRAM is hot and competing for records with some of the biggest, biggest ETF launches in history. It took just 10 days for DRAM to cross $1 billion in assets, the seventh fastest debut in history alongside a handful of world famous funds. Giving it an extra boost is indeed those options. The Korean stocks that everyone wants a piece of did not have ADRs, so until now, options traders had no way to trade them. The result is Dram today did 75% of the volume of the incredibly popular SMH for a total over $100 million of with four times more calls than puts. And this just in from the Round Hill team after the close. Now $6.6 billion under management. Melissa.
- [47:44]
Melissa Lee
Wow, what a climb. Oliver. Thanks. Oliver Renick at cboe. Bono, what do you make of this action?
- [47:52]
Vano
You can't find some momentum and I'm not going to try to. But I will point out the 50% concentration in two names is somewhat concerning and this can easily roll over as quickly as it's sore to the upside. So I would just keep that in mind. If you're going to chase here, you
- [48:07]
Tim Seymour
would think Micron be much bigger. I think Micron's only 4 or 5% of this thing at SanDisk, 4 or 5% as well. So you, to Bonoin's point, I mean 55% are two different names. Just buyer beware, I would say.
- [48:19]
Karen Finerman
Yeah, well the, the, the Korea dynamic's important now you could go out and you know, I, I own the EW Y which is also 50% Hyex and Samsung, Samsung which now is only trading at about five and a half times next year. In other words, I still think it's wildly cheap. So I mean, yeah, Dram as you know, buying that. But I mean we, I don't know, we spent the first part of this show talking about why I'm, I said why I don't know that memory names are turning around overnight. So I get why they're seeing that kind of an interest. Also when micron goes up 100% in a month or, you know, it explains to you how the AUM in an ETF that tracks, that can move very
- [48:55]
Bono
quickly and you want something that's a direct play that doesn't have a lot of noise around it and you're going to use it as a hedging product and it's something where if you just buy the Kospi, you're getting a lot of other noise and a lot of other stocks and a lot of the consumer names that you really don't want. This is a direct play.
- [49:09]
Melissa Lee
Up next, final trades, Final trade time
- [49:25]
Vano
B to win MasterCard High Quality Compounder with inflation linked revenue Timbo got Good
- [49:34]
Karen Finerman
luck with the tool belt this weekend. Clearly the K web is starting to take the hammer to things. I think you're getting a breakout China
- [49:41]
Bono
Steve See what he did there. A couple of CEOs are going with President Trump to visit Xi next week and one of them is Boeing CEO. I think there's going to be probably some good headlines coming out of that meeting.
- [49:56]
Tim Seymour
Happy Mother's Day.
- [49:57]
Melissa Lee
Oh, nothing else to say?
- [49:59]
Tim Seymour
Yes, if you need a plumber, you know where to get me.
- [50:02]
Melissa Lee
Qualcomm Melms guy in his tool belt thanks for watching Fast Money. Have a great weekend. Mad Money at Jim Craver Search Right
- [50:08]
Vano
now
- [50:12]
Melissa Lee
all opinions expressed by the Fast Money participants are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC or its parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, Internet or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed on this podcast as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of an opinion. Such opinions are based upon information the Fast Money participants consider reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy and it should not be relied upon as such. To view the full Fast Money disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com fastmoneydisclaimer what would you
- [50:44]
Guy Adami
like the power to do? Don't worry, you got this.
- [50:48]
Melissa Lee
Whoa.
- [50:49]
Guy Adami
Hear that? I did it. That's the sound of you helping your child find confidence that lasts a lifetime. Bank of America invites kids 6 to 18 to join golf with us for a limited time. Sign them up for a free one year membership, giving them access to discounted tea times at thousands of courses as we champion the next generation. Who dares to ask what would you like the power to do? Restrictions apply. Activation required. Cbfa. Com comp with us for complete details.