
Big tech tumbles as investors anticipate the after-hours Micron earnings report. Where the memory giant is heading and what it means for the broader AI market. Then, OpenAI unveils a deal with Broadcom to make its first custom chip, and housing stocks skyrocket after Trump cancels signing a bipartisan affordable housing bill. Plus, FedWatch Advisors CIO & founder Ben Emons breaks down where he sees the tech trade heading and why he predicts the Fed is on hold. Fast Money Disclaimer
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Carl Quintanilla
Live from the NASDAQ markets in the heart of New York City, Times Square. This is fast money. Here's what's on tap tonight. Memory restored. Micron moving sharply higher as revenue quadruples in the quarter. We'll go inside the numbers, get all the details from the conference call coming up. Plus, mispricing rate hike odds, why Wall street might be getting it wrong on the Fed's next move. Later on, homebuilders hit the nail on the head. Baba continues its June swoon and Gold losing some of its shine. Where the Chartmaster sees the metal heading after dipping below 4K. I'm Carl Catoni in for Melissa Lee, coming to you live from Studio B at the nasdaq. On the desk tonight, Carter Worth, Dan, Nathan Gaia Dami, Tony Wong of T. Rowe Price. Interesting market day, guys. Good to be with you all.
Guy Adami
Hold on, it's first.
Carl Quintanilla
Don't do the royalty, Tony.
Dan Nathan
No.
Guy Adami
Okay, I won't do it.
Carl Quintanilla
But we know.
Guy Adami
I know, right? Mount Rushmore. Carl's on top. Yeah, it was, it was a fascinating day today. You know, you thought the market, the S and P was higher, gave up its gains late. What does that speak to? Does it speak to some of the technical damage it's been over the last couple of weeks? I think it does. And then you have Micron in the after hours and maybe that'll change the narrative tomorrow. But I still think some damage has been done that we'll be talking about over the next couple of weeks.
Carl Quintanilla
Let's begin with that big move in Micron shares are surging after hours as the Company handily beats on the top. And the bottom line comes as chips and the broader tech space have struggled this week. NASDAQ really unable to hold those early gains, posting a third straight day of losses, now down 4% for the week. All of that though could change tomorrow as we watch micron up here. 14 after the bell. Let's get to Christina Parts and Evolos and walk us through the quarter. Hey kp.
Christina Parts
Hi Carl. The call is still underway so I was just listening and management dropped a number that really moved the stock after hours. 16 strategic customer agreements now signed with actually 14 of them locking in roughly $100 billion in minimum guaranteed revenue just over the life of the contracts. And so these run on average about five years through 2030. And once they're all in place, Micron expects about half or more of total company revenue to be under these long term deals. And that's the, the long term strategic agreements we've been watching for and analysts really wanted to hear about. But now you actually have real numbers attached to them. On the capex front, fiscal 2027 spending is now guided above $40 billion. More than half of that increase going into construction of course as Micron pulls forward clean room capacity to keep up with demand. And then on the supply side we know the demand backdrop. Everybody wants these memory chips. The and NAND should stay tight beyond 2027 even later than they previously signaled. So that is a strength for the long term. Put this all together. This is Micron trying to convince Wall street that this isn't just another pricing spike. It's a structural shift with contracts now backing up the story which could really provide a foundation for the trade in the coming days.
Carl Quintanilla
Guys, Christina, thanks for that. Christina, Parts and Nevilles. Tony, is this an all clear in some ways for Sammy's?
Tony Wong
Well, I definitely think the results are really strong. I mean like really great gross margins. You know these strategic agreements like suggest that there is something structural going on. I mean customers have never done anything like this. So I do think it's like pretty supportive of the bull case. Of course you're always wondering about the cyclical aspects of it and like where is the demand disruption. But you know I think you do need HBM and DRAM for AI and it's becoming like more important and HBM specifically is super hard to make. So it's really rewards suppliers that can do it and have the technical prowess.
Dan Nathan
Yeah, I mean one of the issues though is that it takes like a couple of years minimum to kind of make these fabs. Right. That are going to create this hbm, which you just said, Tony, is like not easy to make when you think about these long term contracts that K Parts just spoke to, I mean you can break these things. I mean, especially if there is a scenario where the demand pulls back. And so, you know, we've seen this in almost every tech cycle with a company like Micron. You know, they're slow to react to demand, they build out capacity and by the time they actually get the capacity online, then you have a pricing situation. We've already seen this from the Koreans that they are going to compete to some degree on price. So if you get excited about the fact that this company just put up an 80% gross margin, I mean that's as good as it gets. It's not going to get any better from here. And so, you know, if you're buying this stock at 1200 bucks, whereas trading a couple days ago, you know, up 14% or something like that, I just think it's a tough way to kind of chase this trade right now because it really is one of the last bastions, if you will, of the excitement in and around the AI infrastructure bill. Just look at the way the hyperscalers, which are their biggest customers, have been trading over the last couple of months.
Carl Quintanilla
What mag7 is underperforming S&P by what, 10 points or something for the year? Yeah, like that.
Guy Adami
Which is, you know, if you told me that in the beginning of the year and said, okay guy, you know, what's going on with the broader market? I said, we're in a lot of trouble here. Yet here we are basically at an all time high. The last week or so notwithstanding, the quarter's remarkable. And I'm someone that's been a skeptic, a skeptic through the lens of history, you know, and history is highly cyclical, highly commoditized company that you don't buy when it's cheap, you buy when it's expensive. Obviously they've changed the narrative and it looks like it's here to stay for a period of time. 81% operating margins are extraordinary and the growth is as well. The question you have to ask yourself is when the music stops, what kind of, what kind of moat is around the business and how long will it last and how long will this cycle last? Because when you see any glimpse or hint of a slowdown, it changes dramatically. And if you want proof positive, go back to March and look how quickly the stock went from then an all time high of 450 if you remember, down about 320 over the course of a couple of weeks. It seems like a blip now given where we are. It was a big deal then. I know it was because you guys were talking about it.
Carl Quintanilla
Carter, to Dan's point, about gross margins, I mean there is some discussion tonight about how these numbers kind of make in video margins look like little brother margins.
Carter Worth
I guess Nvidia is practically a value. But, but I mean you guys are covering the main subject which is cyclicality. I mean for instance, this stock has had instances where it's dropped more than 50% in 20, 24, 25. Micron dropped 61. We know in the, in the, in the dot com boom lost at 98% of its value. And here for fun is a headline within the past three years, quote, Micron sets 10% job cuts due to supply demand imbalance. Memory chip glut Profitability Expect to remain challenged. Larger than expected quarterly loss Substantial Worst supply demand imbalance in a decade. Collapsing memory. This is only the last three years. It's Micron. It's cyclical. Everybody knows this. Hard to know when the cycle changes. But if that's now what we were hearing three years ago, it's the equal and opposite moment. Just as things get loved, then they get hated. You know, take measures, reduce exposure to this theme.
Carl Quintanilla
What's our general view Dan, on just the Qs in general, which I think are obviously going to be up after hours, but like the volatility, the inability to catch this dip over the last few sessions.
Dan Nathan
I mean something if you just look at the stocks also, I mean the volatility bands have been widened dramatically.
Guy Adami
Right.
Dan Nathan
And they've been hanging around at these all time highs. And when you think about the Q, I mean this, this is in my opinion this is one of the best ETFs. I love it that the top 10 names make up 50%. I'm not being sarcastic about that because you don't have the idiosyncratic risk when as a Micron moves up into those top 5%. Is that keeping it kind of bid here yet? No doubt about it. But we've also seen to your point some of the other large names in this ETF or in the index in particular the ndx, you know, they've gone sideways, they're underperforming as you just mentioned. So I just think there's the opportunity to kind of see rotation within the NDX or the qqq. And you know, to me it's also one of these things that, yes, we will have a pullback in this entire theme and we're going to see stocks, hey, Microsoft's down 30% from its all time highs last year. And if you don't think these stocks can get cut in half to what you know, Carter just said, like, you're just not looking at history properly. So the qqq, it might be an opportunity as a perfect hedge right now, in my opinion. I just talked about that concentration. It goes both ways.
Carl Quintanilla
Yeah, by the Qs. Is that, is that the lesson?
Tony Wong
Well, look, I think that, you know, there's a fascinating conversation because every semiconductor playbook that you have historically say sell the stocks here. That's why it trades at five times right now. So I think there's a lot of skepticism and I think you have to look at like what the driver, the driver is, which is what agentic AI and the consumption on the demand. And so demand is really inflecting. I think you see it in a lot of the data. And then meanwhile supply is really constrained. Like so I think you have, you know, some cards to play that are like suggesting of the bull case. But of course you always have to like be aware of the down cycle.
Carl Quintanilla
I also want to come back around later to what Micron said tonight about humanoid robots and the amount of memory those take relative to an L2 vehicle, let's say. But we got some breaking news out of the White House tonight. Let's get Damon Jarry's with that.
Carter Worth
Heyman.
Guy Adami
Yeah, that's right.
Eamon Javers
We just heard from President Trump here in the Oval Office, a short availability with reporters in which he was sharply critical of, of the big oil companies. He singled out Exxon, Chevron, bp, Shell and others. And he said they are responsible for the gas prices at the pump not coming down fast enough for Americans. He said he thinks gas at the pump should be about $2.25 a gallon. He said that despite the progress he's made in negotiating an end to the war in Iran and the flow of oil resuming from the Strait of Hormuz, he's been frustrated with what he sees as a slow moving gas industry in lowering prices at the pump for American voters. So he continued to hammer that theme. He also said that he's going to not sign this housing bill. This is a threat that he made earlier today, not sign it until the Senate takes up the SAVE act, which is an electioneering bill that he wants to see passed up on Capitol Hill. The problem with that is that the housing bill passed with pretty large bipartisan Support. The save bill doesn't have the votes to pass. The President is demanding that the Senate take up the bill he favors or he's going to hold back the bill that they favor. He said ultimately, nothing in the housing bill is all that relevant. The key to housing is interest rates. He wants interest rates to come down. And one other note, guys. We're seeing now some of the defense industry CEOs arriving here at the White House just within the past half hour or so for a meeting that we think is about to get underway here behind closed doors at the White House between the President and the defense sector. The President has been sharply critical of the defense sector in recent weeks. He has said that they are not moving fast enough to produce munitions. The White House maintains that there is no lack of supply of military munitions after the war in Iran. But nonetheless, they would like to see the speed and the quantity of munition production increase. That's what the President is likely to say to the defense sector here behind closed doors any minute now. Guys, back over to you.
Carl Quintanilla
Long day for the President and as you said, amen. Defense, oil and gas and housing, all with some policy crosswinds today. Thanks, Eamon Jabbers. Big banks passing the latest Fed stress test today. And just minutes after a host of the biggies announced some DIV hikes and others. Leslie Picker's got some details. Hi, Leslie.
Leslie Picker
Hey, Carl. Yeah. Morgan Stanley raising its dividend by 15% to $1.15 per share. Goldman Sachs intends to boost its dividend by 11% to $5 per share. And JP Morgan bumping its div up by 10% to $1.65 per share. And authorizing a new $50 billion buyback program beginning July 1st. The dividend hikes are subject to each board's approval in the third quarter. And to your point, cq, these announcements come after the Fed's stress test, which found that all 32 banks remained above their minimum requirements against the hypothetical recessionary scenario. The firms absorbed more than $708 billion in total losses, and capital declined only about 1.6 percentage points. And in aggregate, you could see that relative to history there. However, this year's results won't impact the bank's required capital levels because in February, the Fed voted to maintain the current requirements at each bank until 2027, when the new rules. These reformed rules can be calculated based on public feedback. The test itself was pretty similar to the one from last year. This year's included a hypothetical global recession with an unemployment rate peaking at 10% and a 39% and 30% decline in commercial real estate and hous prices respectively.
Carl Quintanilla
Carl Leslie, thanks so much. Let's trade some of those guy. You impressed with the way financials have shaved some year to date losses?
Guy Adami
Yeah, I am. We've been, if you watch the show Citibank's been in, we've been talking about, you know, we made the math problem $150 stock, it basically is traded over the last couple of days. JP Morgan at an all time high. This is sort of if you think about what JP Morgan just had, $50 billion stock buyback. Jamie Dimon has made the point a number of times how expensive he thought his own stock was. But like the market, you know, we get that it's expensive. We also understand we got to be in the game. And that's what you see anecdotally with this. Yeah, the banks have traded well. I think they're as well capitalized as probably they've been in 25 or 30 years. The question comes down to, you know, what environment are we about to find ourselves in? And I don't know the answer. I thought it was a slowing environment. I thought it was a higher unemployment environment. That does not appear to be the case right now.
Carl Quintanilla
Carter favorites on on your front regarding financials and I mean we're going into some of these earnings in a few weeks. Will this be a classic moving into those prints hot?
Carter Worth
Yeah, well one thing, the post market reaction in some of these names is not particularly encouraging. But the main thing it's Goldman and Morgan Stanley that have really taken off in a big way. This sort of two leading investment bank and brokerage and JP Morgan right now is trading at a 15 year relative low to each stock. I like JP Morgan. I would do that as a pair. JP Morgan Long Goldman and Morgan Stanley short.
Dan Nathan
Yeah, Carter. Carter had a nice call yesterday from a technical perspective, you know, take some profits, take measures in the Goldman, the Morgan. I just find it fascinating that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs for that matter, I mean Morgan was up 50% at its highs just a couple of days ago from its March lows. When you think about that in an investment bank like this, if you're getting that geeked up about being you know, a co lead on the space X ipo they compressed fees like I mean it was absolutely amazing. I mean it was almost a rounding error that a lot of these banks made in their revenues for Q2. And so I just don't get it. I mean the chances of getting both anthropic and open air in Q3 to me aren't particularly high. So if you're buying these stocks up here on this massive, massive run in the last few months, I just don't think that makes a whole heck of a lot of sense here.
Carl Quintanilla
Yeah, Goldman holding a thousand pretty easily here. Let's get to bitcoin today, breaking below 60k, as you may know, hitting the lowest level since October of 24. It's the third time this year the crypto is traded under the $60,000 mark. Crypto linked stocks falling in kind. Strategy now down over 9%, roughly 80% off the all time highs it hit in the fall of 2024. Robinhood, Coinbase and Mara holdings also sharply lower. You got some thoughts on what's happening if they're trying to press strategy in particular on this front?
Tony Wong
Yeah, I mean, I've been watching bitcoin and crypto and it's just been interesting because I think that in terms of risk assets, a lot of capital is just flowing into the trade. Right. Infrastructure and this is on the opposite side. And I think, you know, I think on, you know, strategy there probably are some bears out there that are confused by, you know, microstrategies is like a kind of how do they buy or sell bitcoin? You know, so I'm just kind of on the sidelines here, but to me there's clear fundamental strength elsewhere.
Dan Nathan
Yeah, you know, one of the things that has been lurking here as the price has acted so poorly, we had tons and tons of catalysts over the last couple of years. New administration was going to be regulatory, is going to be ETFs, it was going to be a whole host of other things that in the background though you had these treasury strategies, they just haven't proven to add any value to, you know, the underlying asset. Right. And the underlying utility of this blockchain in general, if you're talking about bitcoin, I mean, web three never materialized. DeFi is not really materializing. If you have a view that, you know, some of these, you know, blockchains that have just gotten cut in half in the last few months are going to be the backbone of this defi boom, well, it's not happening. Right. And so at the end of the day, I look at these treasury companies that are meant to do something that I don't think they're meaning to do because all of these companies have basically seen the value of the asset that they're buying with leverage cut in half. And I don't know how you get, how do you get whole in that?
Guy Adami
Once again the enthusiasts will say we've seen moves like this a number of times before peak to trough. And that is factually true. I think it's a different backdrop now. I think this hawkish Fed is doing nothing to help the price of bitcoin. And what I've said for a while. We had Anthony Scaramucci on a week and a half or so ago. I made the point that I think the market is shooting against microstrategy or strategy now in terms of what they're holding, the earnings are and the average price. He countered saying that they were positioned for that. But it's clear the market is up to something else right now. And just technically, and Carter's brought this up, it does not trade well. It appears as though low 50,000 are in the cards here.
Carl Quintanilla
Yeah, and Carter, I'm sure, I mean we're putting up strategy here but the Preferred's got a lot of eyeballs today in their intraday action.
Carter Worth
Yeah, I mean it's a testament to relative strength. Right? The good relative strength in semis. It was the same in precious metals until it isn't or oil until it isn't. And this is relative strength. Momentum to the downside. Respect it. Stay away.
Carl Quintanilla
Thanks guys. Coming up, homebuilders strong foundation as KB home surges after results. We'll get details from that quarter and the impact on the sector after the President cancels the signing of that landmark housing bill. And there's the China tech wreck. If there's any bounce in store for Baba as K Web hits some fresh 52 week lows don't go anywhere. Fast Money's back in two. You're watching Fast Money here on CNBC. We'll be right back.
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Carl Quintanilla
Welcome back to Fast Money. The housing sector surging today despite the President's canceling of that bipartisan housing bill signing which was meant to improve affordability just in the last hour saying interest rates need to come down. Builders all rallying as the expectation is the bill will become law within 10 days. KB was the best performer of the group after beating on earnings this week while home improvement names like Williams, Sonoma Depot and Lowe's all popped today as well. K.B. carter, it's about three month high these. They really didn't give up any gains after the President canceled that signing.
Leslie Picker
No.
Carter Worth
And as you say, derivative names, Mohawk, you know, people in the carpet business and paint and all sorts of things. It's, it's very thematic. What is interesting is that this housing related theme was exhibiting particularly good price action over the past three, four sessions before this pop. Meaning as the market was pulling in. No weakness at all in any of these names. And now some news related strength, sort of confirming if you will, the positive behavior over the prior again four or five sessions.
Carl Quintanilla
New homes though were a disappointment. We talked to Tri Point this morning on squawk on the street. They didn't think this bill was going to be a panacea for supply.
Dan Nathan
No.
Guy Adami
And it's and it will not or it won't and that housing numbers were bad. But you know, sometimes bad news is good news. And it's funny, the President obviously wants lower rates which I understand somewhat counterintuitively this hawkish Fed might be providing him with exactly what he needs because if you look 10 year yields have actually sort of backed off since Kevin Marsh has been talking tough and I think that could potentially continue. So I say leave well enough alone on the Fed front. I'll say this quickly about Home Depot. Stockton made its all time high in the fall of 2024. Think about that in a market at all time high Carter will look at this and say we're about to break a downtrend that's been in place since the fall of 2025. And yet one of the biggest single day moves to the upside today on decent volume. So Home Depot might be very interesting here.
Dan Nathan
Yeah. You know, on the 30 year fixed, you know, it hasn't come in a whole heck of a lot. I think we had about a 7% number maybe about a year ago and it kind of banged around up there. But we are at like 6.58% right now. So if you're talking about getting a little relief on affordability on a day that saw the 10 year, as Guy just mentioned, come in 10, 10 basis point, I mean, that's a, that's a big move. I mean, you know, and I would have thought that that would have given a little gusto. You know, you had that crude oil move, which is massive. And I got to tell you, mia culpa. I thought yesterday on the show, I just thought that crude probably has a floor in the mid-70s and to take that premium out, man, that was kind of nasty today. So we crude and you know, the 10 year coming in 10, 10 basis points and then having a lot of these sort of cyclical spots like the homebuilders move like this, I would have expected the S and P to be acting a lot better.
Guy Adami
Yeah.
Carl Quintanilla
Given what yields did today. That is interesting. We got some more news on the banks. Leslie Picker has been watching it all afternoon. Hey, Leslie.
Leslie Picker
Hey, Carl. Yeah, we got a first look at a statement from bank of America chair and CEO Brian Moynihan before it's released. More broadly, the firm will say that they remain committed to delivering for our shareholders and will make their next quarterly common stock dividend announcement following the July board meeting. They have basically increased the dividend every July over the last 10 years. So kind of based on that cadence, they plan to make any kind of announcement at that time as opposed to post the Fed stress test results, which of course, as we've been talking about, maintained current capital levels. So there wasn't too much in the way of surprises there, there. So bank of America opting to follow kind of their normal cadence to make those dividend announcements in July Senate.
Carl Quintanilla
Back to you really quick, Leslie. Are we arguing tonight that JPM has the most aggressive news on capital returns?
Leslie Picker
I think that's right. With the buyback plan of $50 billion. I mean, in terms of percentage, based on the ones that we've been studying, BNY had the biggest hike for its dividend of 19%, but in terms of absolute buyback, $50 billion pretty significant. Morgan Stanley's of $20 billion for reauthorization there. Also significant more what we've seen on the dividend side hiking dividends than actual buyback programs. JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley the outliers there.
Carl Quintanilla
Leslie, thanks. When we come back, more trouble for China Tech Alibaba pacing for its worst month in more than three years. How our traders are positioning in the mainland moves still ahead. You're watching Fast Money live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. Right back after this.
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At Venture Global, we think about what can be done, not what's usually done through innovation. Venture Global is not only building some of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building. That's Venture Global. That's unstoppable energy.
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Carl Quintanilla
Welcome back to Fast Money. Alibaba dropping nearly 3% today after anthropic said in a letter to Congress the company illicitly accessed its Claude AI model using thousands of fraudulent accounts as adds to pressure on the the China tech giant which is now on a seven day losing streak, on pace for a seventh straight losing week as well the China broader China tech trade also feeling the pinch K Web ETF trading at more than a two year Low. Tony, what is going on here? I know you guys are all watching this one.
Tony Wong
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think that, you know, distilling the model is like become a really important point because if you don't have the GPU, compute or the AI infrastructure, you're trying to copy like 80% of the value of these frontier models with 10% the cost. So I think that's what's going on. And so I think it's important to Anthropogen is able to protect their model and make sure they stay ahead. So in my opinion, it's definitely not great, but it just shows like how far ahead anthropic is.
Dan Nathan
Yeah, the distillation, I mean, that was really what the deep SEQ moment was in January 25th. Right. All of a sudden you had this model that was open source and that was supposedly created on like a fraction of what, you know, ChatGPT and Claude were built on. But that's coming to a theater near you. I mean, this, this announcement or maybe the speculation that Microsoft's going to put, you know, Deep seeks R4 reasoning model into copilot. I mean, this just compresses. There's so much about the ecosystem from a, you know, the economics of the ecosystem in many ways. And I feel like we haven't even scratched the surface on that. So again, I can see why Anthropic or OpenAI wants to get really aggressive with these Chinese models. Because Quinn, for instance, at Baba, they are exporting that to the world, right? And this is going to be a digital belt and road. So at the end of the day, our guys are beating these, beating themselves on the, you know, head with each other, spending hundreds of billions of dollars. And the Chinese are pushing out models that are 80% as good and really leveraging off our existing models in the spend over here.
Guy Adami
You need a bad guy, right? And so what is if Anthropic was that much of a lead, you don't necessarily need one. But the fact that they are lashing out this way and saying they're stealing our technology, I think that's somewhat problematic. Now, obviously Alibaba trades awfully here. I mean, below 100, I never saw that coming. Not that it matters, but I think the average price targets about 190. My instincts suggest you can start hearing Alibaba talk about a stock buyback maybe accelerated. It's dirt cheap here. I think analysts have start to realize that as well.
Carl Quintanilla
Carter, it's not like Chinese equities are having a heyday overall, at least in Hong Kong.
Carter Worth
No, I mean, you know, it's again and this was such an encouraging area developing. Well coming off the 2022 bear market lows outperforming almost all other bourses in 23, 24 and even into 25 and now complete collapse. I would get out, take measures, just don't, don't fool around.
Carl Quintanilla
Still to come, the next move in stocks, rates, oil and more. Ben Ammons of FedWatch Advisor is going to join us. Talk about where he sees markets heading and why. He says rate hike odds are mispriced. That's next when fast Money returns. Missed a moment of fast.
Dan Nathan
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Carl Quintanilla
the Fast Money podcast. We're back right after this. Welcome back to Fast money. Stocks closing mixed with the S and P and Nasdaq unable to hold on to some early gains. Both closing lower. The Nasdaq down nearly half a percent. Dow with a small gain up 184. Digital payment stocks jumping today. A firm toast shift for payments. All some solid gains. A firm hitting its highest level since January. Let's turn to the markets though. Ben Ammons is founder and chief investment officer at FedWatch Advisors. He joins us here at the desk. Talk about some rate risk. You think Ben, you think the Fed's on hold?
Ben Levisohn
Basically, yeah, I think they are, Carl, because you know, just take oil prices, right? What's happening, we go almost back to where we came from. So this will start impacting inflation as of next month. And if you really look back at what happened with expectations starting with Waller by getting worried about the war and that prolongs and all that, then the dot plot shift just really within the fact that people were worried about the conflict. Well just the conflict has now ended. Now I have another idea on this is that yesterday the Senate basically passed a war resolution. I think today yields for responding party to that because we're just not going to see this war anymore. Right. So you're getting more and more oil price decline and it looks to me that at least the July probability, which is I think still something like 35%. That's, that's to me mispriced. If you think further out, it should actually be too because this Fed is not going to really hike rates, not going to slam the brakes, particularly if inflation starts to moderate.
Carl Quintanilla
So you think we can look past maybe a hot PCE tomorrow?
Ben Levisohn
I think we can. You know that that number will be hot as you say, it's 4% or more. That's the projection. You plug that into one of these models to fetch you actually be hiking by 100 basis points. But there are real time data out there too that actually point the opposite direction on core PC that the Fed's actually should potentially be cutting. I don't think the Fed will be cutting. That's not really the case. So the Fed is sort of at a point where it says stay on hold. I guess wars will try to have some sort of compromise on in the July meeting about this balance sheet. Maybe starting with that first. If they need to lean against inflation, they feel so strong about it.
Guy Adami
I made a point earlier that might be counterintuitive but a hawkish Fed might be the best thing that's happened to the bond market in quite some time. So you know, speak softly, carry a big stick. He's carrying that big stick but he's not going to use it. And the market's doing the Fed cuts for the rate cuts for him in an odd way.
Ben Levisohn
Yeah they are. And that's right Guy. Typically when the Fed gets hawkish, the euchre starts to flatten the 10 year to 30. You'll go down a bit more than the 2 year yield. Really Because I think the market senses like you're not going to do anything, you're not going to surprise us, you're not going to come out with a whole series of hikes because that's the steepening. But as you lean against inflation with language the idea is that then the dollar strengthened and then commodity prices start to soften and oil prices and that would take out the risk of inflation out of yields. That's kind of what's happening right now.
Carl Quintanilla
Now it does sound like you think maybe the biggest back half risk are the midterms.
Ben Levisohn
Yeah, that would be the case because you know that's I think maybe as of July, August that they'll get investors minds. Right. Because this, this war, this conflict has changed people's mind about where we are and what's going on. Not to be political but like it is a risk. I'd say if the House and the Senate were to flip to, to Democrat what would this mean for the economy? There's going to be a lot of debate about this. Maybe a little early to have a scenario on this. Exactly. But if you think about where we are currently with deregulation, tax cuts, all that type of stuff, that could change. Right. And that's I think the next risk for the markets.
Eamon Javers
Yeah.
Dan Nathan
What do you think about the dollar here? It just kind of broke out of this range. And you know what's interesting to me is that you have the dollar going one way and got yields going the other way and that's not something we've gotten too accustomed to and then gold is just kind of falling out of bed. But I'm just curious like is the dollar got some room to run?
Ben Levisohn
It could have Dan. I think that the talk in the affects market is that we got dolly yen at an intervention level sort of Right. There's a lot of chatter but it's not happened yet and don't know when. But I do think the other side of that is this debasement idea that we had earlier this year and last year that that's maybe getting a little bit out of this because people do perceive the wash fat to be tighter, more hawkish and just that itself lifts the $$ but then also if inflation starts to decline the real interest rate so the rate of counter inflation is a bit rising which pushes the dollar up also I think lastly is that as this conflict has ended and gas prices start to decline government gets a boost. It's likely the case so dollar will strengthen See the bit of the dollar smile working here. Right. That said I day so I think dollar will have some room to run except against the yen we'll have to see what happens there. I don't know when but but I do I do think they will do something because it's just got too weak at this point.
Carl Quintanilla
Is there is there a case that war ends and as you say re escalation unlikely but in that picking up speed inflation gets more entrenched. I don't know I mean even in super core services or something so services
Ben Levisohn
is interesting if you talk if you think today about what's happening with Micron and this whole dram I was looking at that today and you know this in the services component of PC right. So that's the underlying sort of pressure that's there in addition to just services itself self which is Right. Like if the economy starts to accelerate yeah services inflation will go higher but goods inflation can maybe moderate a bit more as the conflict eases and the supply chain eases. Right. So net net I think there will be inflationary pressure which keeps this fed on a hawkish hold but not this slamming the brakes that we saw in
Guy Adami
2022 real quick go back to Japan 162 basically dollar yen the highest level we've seen probably in 40 years. That's against the backdrop of oil going lower which should be bullish for their currency. It's not bond yields going higher which it's what's going on? Like you just said, something's got to give. The last time it gave was the summer of 24, I believe in July when dollar yen went from 160 to 153. And we had a huge event here in the equity market.
Ben Levisohn
Yeah, that that's maybe lurking again. You know, that event was about BoJ indicating they're going to hike more and then suddenly people realize, okay, this maybe should strengthen the yen. But when you do intervention, that's kind of a game playing with the market. Typically we intervene, it works temporarily and then the market comes right back weight of the intervention level. So I'm not sure if that's going to be effective. But they have made a lot of chatter about doing something about the yen. The minutes from the BOJ yesterday also indicated that they want to hike more from here. So I think yen is a little bit caught in a spiral of like if you're going to hike and even the oil prices are lower, but hiking means weaker economy, means weaker currency, you get a bit of that sort of circle. And I think that's what we have to watch here because if yen cannot really strengthen much, then you know it's going to continue to spiral and that's going to keep pushing up yields higher. So I think the deviation between treasury yields and and yen is to be watched here because typically when treasury yields go lower, yen follows.
Tony Wong
Right.
Ben Levisohn
Or does that relationship seems to be broken down.
Carl Quintanilla
We'll see what we get tomorrow. Thanks as always. Good to see you. Ben shares a Qualcomm surging after hours on the back of this updated financial target. Christina Parts and Avalos is back with us watching some of those details. Hey kp.
Christina Parts
Hi Carl. Gun. Well, Qualcomm is definitely making the case that it's no longer just a smartphone chip firm, but a full stack AI company. And the new targets seem to be backing that up or that's what the market thinks. You have management now saying non handset revenue. So non smartphone revenue will be $40 billion by 2029, nearly double what it projected just two years ago. The biggest new piece is data center revenue which didn't even exist in the last forecast, now targeting roughly $15 billion by fiscal 2029. So I was able to catch up with the CEO Cristiano Aman for a second time and I was able to ask him specifically how can he secure all of that capacity to make those chips listen in.
Carl Quintanilla
So when I say I have now $5 billion of revenue projected for fiscal 27 with those customers for their $5 billion. I have secured the capacity from the manufacturer as well as memory. I also have memory for what we do in accelerator. So we're excited about that and I think, you know, we're very confident in
Ben Levisohn
the forecast we provided.
Christina Parts
Does that mean that you're signing long term agreements with.
Carl Quintanilla
We always, we always. Three years, five years, we always do that. Given our scale. I think if you look through our, through our history, just the past few years we have been doing long term agreements both with customers as well as the supply side.
Christina Parts
So that comment really plays into Micron's earnings and that capacity was secured at tsmc. But the message to investors is that this diversification is just happening way faster than expected. Guys.
Carl Quintanilla
Christina, thanks so much for that. Tony, a lot of ink spin spilled about Qualcomm and sort of shedding that Mobile Scarlet A over the past couple of months.
Tony Wong
Yeah, yeah. Well I also think it's been, you know, a long term play for them. They've been working on data center for multiple years now and like diversifying. So it's great to see it's coming to fruition. I would say one is that the inference market is going to be more heterogeneous and so I think they're going to have a play and then they're also really focused on low power. Right. And power is becoming a real constraint. You know, in addition I think that the market is just growing so much and if you have the wafer supply at tsmc, which they do, I think that they are well positioned.
Carl Quintanilla
You think they'll be as acquisitive as they have been lately?
Tony Wong
You know, I don't want to comment on that but I do think that overall like you need more of the system solution. Right. So the more pieces you have, you know, the network and compute memory, the better and so, so it's really like training. The more that you have probably the better.
Carl Quintanilla
Yeah, that's quite a move after hours.
Dan Nathan
So Tony, we got RPOs, we got LTA's, we got all this stuff and you got some of these companies like Qualcomm who just missed you know, huge computing sort of shifts right over the last 20 years into Carl's point. I love that the, the Mobile Scarlet A. That's good stuff. You know, like what would your as a pm like what is your confidence that they're going to be able to execute, secure that you know, kind of capacity capacity from Taiwan semi? Aren't there a lot of moving parts for a company that really hasn't demonstrated they're going to be able to do this.
Tony Wong
Well, I do think that they have really key technology, right? I mean they've been around for a long time. I mean they have, they're one of the biggest customers at tsmc. So I think that's, that's in the bag. And then they have been doing this for multiple years trying to get into the data center. And I think that you're really meeting to them at this inflection point of agentic and a demand inflection and most importantly I think that's that inferencing capability.
Guy Adami
Carl Dropping some Hawthorne man Little Hester print.
Carl Quintanilla
Nathaniel.
Guy Adami
I mean that doesn't happen here all that often.
Carl Quintanilla
10th grade AP English when we come back, gold losing its luster. As you know, the metal briefly dipping below 4k for the first time since November. What the Chartmaster sees in store for that safe haven trade when Fast Money comes back. Welcome back to Fast Money. It's been a rough day for gold. The yellow metal briefly below 4K for the first time since November and now down 12% since the beginning of June. 24% since the Iran war began. The Chartmaster saying it might be time to start covering some shorts. Carter, what are you seeing?
Carter Worth
Yeah, before I look at the charts, I mean I think it's the concept that matters. If one were to just search for the usage of the phrase buy gold or gold or precious metals, it's collapsed just as guess what, so is Mag7. And what's popular in usage in print. Wall street reports media is semiconductors. They're cycles. And so this was loved and now it's hated. Just as oil was loved and now it's hated. And software was loved and now it's hated. Guess what? We know there are extremes. You overshoot, you undershoot this. Gold is down now some 30%. Let's look at two charts and at this point I think you just play for a bounce. We've, we've come down over a four month period. Now it's just about sequencing. Look at the second and final chart. We've breached this trend line that's been in effect for the better part of three, ever so slightly. So I think for those who have the dexterity, nimbleness to do it, it's a trade playing for a bounce. This is literally being laughed at just as it was being scooped up with joy in January.
Carl Quintanilla
Remember when folks were going to Costco guy and yeah, they were selling out
Guy Adami
in like a week. Listen, I get why the gold market's done well. I Didn't think we'd get here. We're through the 200 day moving average. I say a hawkish Fed, obviously a strengthening dollar. There was talk earlier in the war that some central banks in the Middle east were selling gold. I have no validation of verification of that. What I will tell you though. So the reasons that I'm still bullish gold have not gone away. They've had some headwinds for sure, but those headwinds will abate. I'm with Carter on this one.
Carl Quintanilla
Carter, really quick. We say the same thing about silver or is that more of an industrial use case dynamic?
Carter Worth
Obviously very high correlation, Carl, as you know, 90 plus percent. So it's the same dynamic with with beta. And so I would do the same thing. Just be contrarian here and play for a bounce.
Tony Wong
All right.
Carl Quintanilla
Still to come a half price pickup. The bare bones electric vehicle that's hitting the road. And if the lowest priced truck in the US can recharge consumer interest in EVs when fast is back in tube. Welcome back to fast money. EV startup Slate Auto officially opening pre orders today for their blank Slate electric pickup truck. Company deems the truck the most affordable in America as the starting price is around 25k. Here with more details is our Phil LaBeau. Hi again Phil.
Phil LaBeau
Hey Carl. They are correct that it is the lowest priced pickup truck in the country. Also the lowest priced electric vehicle in the country. The official pricing which was announced today by Slate, the base pickup truck coming in at just under $25,000. You can get an SUV square back SUV with the seats in the back for $29,950. And then there's the fastback SUV for just under 32 grand. The whole idea here is you buy the base and then it's up to you to outfit it how you like it. From the wheels to the roof rack to what's on the interior. The CEO tells us that he expects it to be about $5,000 per vehicle that the average customer spends outfitting their Slate vehicle. So what's the game plan for this company? Well, it's audacious to say the least because many of the vehicle startup companies in recent years have failed. Their first deliveries are going to start in Q4 gross margin positive per vehicle right off the bat. Easy to see why. Because the costs are so low, that's how they can afford to charge a lower price. The target cash flow positive by next year. By the way, as you take a look at the average transaction price for a vehicle right now in this country, it's just under 50,000. But the average price for a pickup truck in this country, $55,000. The interesting thing is you take a look at Ford, gm, Stellantis and Toyota, they're the largest pickup truck manufacturers in this country. None of them manufacture a two door pickup truck. So, guys, that's one of the challenges that Slate is going to face. How many people are going to want to buy this? Yes, that price will entice people, but it's a two door truck or a two door suv, which is going to be a challenge there. And then the other challenge is, look, the used market is loaded with pickup trucks and SUVs that are not selling at $50,000. They're selling for a lot less. And that's going to be the competition for Slate. We'll see how they do. They've got about 180,000 orders. We'll see how many of those actually convert into actual. From reservations into actual orders.
Carl Quintanilla
It's a really interesting story, Phil. But you know, it's not just the list price, guys. There's maintenance, repairs on EVs are expensive and then depreciation. It's kind of fierce too.
Dan Nathan
I feel bad saying this because, you know, an entrepreneur going out there making this car, trying to do the thing that Elon wanted to do for a very long time. It has to be a piece of junk. I mean, let's just be honest.
Carl Quintanilla
No, I mean, I think that's appropriate.
Dan Nathan
All you have to do is go look at a Model 3 that, you know, retails for like 36,000 or something like that. And they're horrible. There's nothing in them, you know, so I just feel bad. The business is really brutal right now, so I'm sorry about that. I'd say I hope you succeed. I mean that we'll get it.
Carl Quintanilla
That's time for a test drive. When, when we get one, we'll definitely
Dan Nathan
go on the road.
Carl Quintanilla
Up next, some final trades. Let's get some final trades.
Carter Worth
Carter Firm holdings, the digital commerce site.
Dan Nathan
You like it long?
Carter Worth
Afrm, Tony.
Tony Wong
Semiconductor socks. I like it long term.
Dan Nathan
Yeah. As I said earlier yesterday, horrible call in oil, but I do think 70 is probably the level.
Carl Quintanilla
That's today.
Guy Adami
Yesterday for maiden voyage, Tony did very well.
Carl Quintanilla
Great.
Guy Adami
Right or wrong. Great. And it's great having CQ here.
Tony Wong
I mean, I mean, honestly, got the
Dan Nathan
brains, we got the looks. It was, it was awesome.
Guy Adami
But Carl's royalty gets mad at me that he is Chevron Carl.
Carl Quintanilla
I love it. Always fun, guys.
Carter Worth
Thanks.
Carl Quintanilla
Thanks for watching Fast money. Mad money. Starts now.
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Date: June 24, 2026
Host: Carl Quintanilla (in for Melissa Lee)
Panel: Guy Adami, Dan Nathan, Carter Worth, Tony Wong (T. Rowe Price)
Special Guests: Christina Partsinevelos, Leslie Picker, Eamon Javers, Ben Ammons, Phil LeBeau
This episode of Fast Money dives into three critical themes shaking today’s markets:
Tony Wong ([03:58])
“These strategic agreements suggest there is something structural going on. Customers have never done anything like this.”
He emphasizes the need for HBM and DRAM in AI, making supply tight and favoring producers with technical prowess.
Dan Nathan ([04:28])
“Every tech cycle, Micron’s slow to react to demand, then there’s a glut… If you’re buying the stock at $1200, up 14% now, it’s a tough chase because it’s one of the last bastions of AI infrastructure excitement.”
Warns about high gross margins (80%) not being sustainable and risks of cyclical oversupply.
Guy Adami ([05:38])
“I’ve been a skeptic through history — highly cyclical, highly commoditized. But 81% operating margins are extraordinary. The big question: when the music stops, how long does the moat last?”
Carter Worth ([06:48])
“Micron… is cyclical. It’s hard to know when the cycle changes. Three years ago the headlines were brutal, now they’re euphoric. When things get loved, they get hated.”
“Every semiconductor playbook says sell the stocks here. But demand is inflecting and supply is constrained—some cards for the bull case, but be aware of the down cycle.”
Notable Stat:
Micron now expects over half of total revenue under long-term contracts once fully in place.
Eamon Javers Reports from the White House ([09:45])
Analysis:
Leslie Picker Breaks Down Bank Moves ([12:01])
Trader Insights:
“Web3 never materialized; DeFi isn’t really materializing…these treasury strategies haven’t added value to the underlying asset.”
“It’s a different backdrop now. The hawkish Fed is doing nothing to help. Technically, looks like low $50Ks are in the cards.”
Carter ([17:55]):
“Relative strength to the downside. Respect it. Stay away.”
“Housing-related theme was exhibiting good price action even before this pop—no weakness as market pulled in, then some news-related strength confirms the move.”
“Sometimes, bad news is good news. The hawkish Fed might just be giving exactly what’s needed—10-yr yields backed off, could help affordability.”
“Distilling the model is the play if you don’t have AI infrastructure—trying to get 80% of the value at 10% cost. Shows just how far ahead Anthropic is.”
“Chinese are pushing out models that are 80% as good, leveraging our R&D. US firms have to get aggressive.”
“Alibaba below $100 is shocking. Might hear renewed buyback talk—they’re dirt cheap but trade awfully.”
“Complete collapse. Get out, take measures, don’t fool around.”
Guest: Ben Ammons, FedWatch Advisors
“I think the July hike odds are mispriced. The Fed isn’t going to slam the brakes, particularly if inflation moderates.”
“Even if we see a hot number, real-time data suggest core PCE should actually be softer.”
“Hawkish Fed might be the best thing for bonds—market’s doing the Fed’s work on yields.”
Update from Christina Partsinevelos
“Like all cycles: gold was loved, now hated. Down 30%, I’d play for a bounce. We’re at trendline support—cautiously contrarian here.”
“Still bullish—headwinds will abate.”
Phil LeBeau’s Report
“I feel bad saying it, but…it has to be a piece of junk. The business is brutal right now.”
“This isn’t just another pricing spike, it’s a structural shift with contracts now backing up the story.” – Christina Partsinevelos ([02:35])
“Just as things get loved, they get hated. Take measures.” ([06:48])
“This is a different backdrop now. Hawkish Fed doing nothing to help bitcoin.” ([17:14])
“I feel bad saying this… but it has to be a piece of junk. The business is brutal right now.” ([45:22])
| Ticker/Theme | Bearish Take | Bullish Take | Panelists’ Consensus | |--------------|-------------|-------------|---------------------| | Micron | Cycle at risk, unsustainable margins | $100B contracts, AI demand, structural shift | Don’t chase, but structural differences noted. Caution warranted. | | S&P/QQQs | Rotation at top, narrow breadth | Massive ETF concentration supports | QQQs could be perfect hedge; volatility rising | | Banks | Rallied too far, run-up overdone | Capitalized, big buybacks/divs | Caution as earnings approach; JPM preferred | | BTC/Crypto | Macro backdrop worse, catalysts failed | Niche relative strength possible | Stay away; $50Ks possible for BTC | | Housing | Weak new sales, rate risks | Policy optimism, strong builder stocks | “Bad news is good news,” yields helping affordability | | China Tech | Model theft, trade pressures | Distillation keeps China competitive | “Complete collapse”—avoid for now | | Gold | Oversold, unloved | Contrarian bounce likely | Short-covering trade, cyclical rebound likely | | EV disruption | Brutal landscape | Cheap price may entice | Two-door format and used supply major headwinds |
For investors and market watchers: This episode provides a nuanced look at how headlines are shaping trades but always through the lens of history’s cycles. The Fast Money crew urges selectivity, preparedness for reversals, and skepticism of “this time is different”—particularly in semis, crypto, and China tech.