
President Trump unveiling the framework for a trade deal with the UK, his first since the ‘reciprocal’ tariff pause. How those details will impact broader markets. Plus, the latest move in Alphabet after yesterday’s search drama, and what a “most favored nation” policy means for drug pricing and stocks. One top health care analyst weighs in. Fast Money Disclaimer
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Melissa Lee
In the heart of New York City is Times Square. This is fast money. Here's what's on tap tonight. One deal done. The U.S. and UK reaching a trade agreement that helped stocks push higher Thursday. What we know and what we don't know about the deal and how it sets the stage for more negotiations and what rebound Alphabet higher today but far from erasing yesterday's losses. Where does the company really stand in the land of search and will it ever reclaim the pole position? Plus, pharma's rough week rolls on how much of a toll tariffs could take on airline stocks? Higher as the DOT announces plans to overhaul air traffic control. And another big night of earnings. We'll be joined by Pinterest CEO Bill Ready for all the details on the results. I'm Melissa Lee. Come to you live from Studio B at the nasdaq. On the desk tonight, Tim Seymour, Dan Nathan and Julie Beal. We start off with the market rally losing a bit of steam at the end of the day. The S and P paring gains in the last hour of trade closing about half a percent higher. It was up as much as 1.6% earlier in the session. The Nasdaq meanwhile managed a more than 1% gain at the close. The Dow added 250 points, pulling it into the green for the week. Meanwhile, the 10 year treasury yield neared 4.4%, its highest level this month. The early strength coming after President Trump announced the framework of a trade deal with the UK had been reached. Let's get to Megan Casella in Washington with all the details and what we know about the deal.
Megan Casella
Meghan hey, Melissa. Both sides emphasizing that details still need to be worked out before this is a fully fledged enforceable trade agreement. But we are starting to get some details as to what exactly we do expect will be included here. A couple of things. The first is that the US 10% Basel tariff will remain in place for nearly all UK imports. Very few exceptions besides that 10% tariff. Also some increased market access for US beef and some agricultural products, ethanol industrial products as well. The UK also agrees or will agree to buy $10 billion worth of Boeing products. We saw the stock jump on that earlier today. And 100,000 UK autos in exchange will be coming to be able to come into the US facing just a 10% tariff over rather than the 25% auto tariff that had been in place. And Melissa, one key with this deal and one reason that both sides say it was a little bit easier to negotiate is because the US Runs a rare trade surplus with the UK you can see it here. That's imports in blue exports in orange. We're buying a little bit more from them, excuse me, they're buying a little bit more from us than we're buying from them. And we don't have that with most countries. Officials say that's the reason that the baseline tariff is only at 10% and not higher. Just in the last hour we heard Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick talk about this and what it signals for other countries that do run deficits with the U.S. take a listen here.
Melissa Lee
So the 10% baseline is for those countries that have balanced budget with us.
Tim Seymour
That are the best, and then those.
Melissa Lee
Who had trade deficits are going to.
Dan Nathan
Have a higher tariff.
Tim Seymour
Now, if they really open their market.
Melissa Lee
And they really go to town and.
Tim Seymour
Say, look, we really want to get.
Melissa Lee
To fair and balanced trade with America.
Tim Seymour
Then the best they can do is 10%.
Dan Nathan
Most likely they'll be higher, but the.
Melissa Lee
Best they can be is 10%.
Megan Casella
The best they can do is a 10% tariff. Melissa so that's really the biggest takeaway from today when we think about all the future deals with larger trading partners that are still to come. The tariffs should stay at least at 10%. Officials are signaling now and in some cases could be much higher than where they are now as those tariffs for the moment are on pause.
Melissa Lee
Melissa Megan, thank you. MEGAN casella, Secretary Lutnick also saying basically to expect dozens of deals in the next month or so. So there's High expectations being set by the administration for some more breakthroughs, as they call it, in terms of trade negotiations. Various countries.
Dan Nathan
Well, if this is a framework deal, this is a deal structure, we can apply to other deals. And it sounds to me like we're going to find the three countries where we meet. How many countries are there in the world?
Tim Seymour
182.
Dan Nathan
Okay. We'll find three of them that possibly actually have a trade surplus on the other side. Look, the bottom line is I will get back to my market's view on this because I don't understand why we need to have a balanced trade with every country in the world. It seems ludicrous and something that makes zero economic sense. But I do think that the worst of the trade rhetoric for the market is over. And in fact, I think if you look at the market has done it at some point intraday, I think even on the Nasdaq, we are, I think, at a bull market off that intraday low. In other words, we had actually gone up over 20% from those intraday lows on April 7. So I think it's, it's, it's great that people are talking. I think the 90 days will go by quickly. I think the, the bottom line is, I think the sense we have is wherever that Trump put is, it's, it's a function of a lot of different ingredients. But that, yeah, getting out there with the uk Possibly Japan, possibly India, this is what we're looking at. But there was nothing about what we heard today that gives you confidence that this plan is, is one that really is, is, is going to be a panacea for a deficit.
Tim Seymour
Yeah, I mean, it goes back to, you know, March 2018, first Trump administration, they threw some tariffs on. Nothing like this, by the way. It took them nearly two years. Right. To get a phase one deal. Listen, it's constructive, but this is something that actually was. Didn't happen. I mean, like, you know, if you're worried about these sorts of trade deficits, which they obviously are, you know, you could go about it and just kind of get your allies first in line and then really kind of focus on your major adversary, which is China. When you think about the surplus that we had, Tim just mentioned that, and you think about really the total amount of trade, $150 billion with the UK were obviously one of their biggest trading partners. They're number nine on our point. Put Canada, Mexico together and it's 10%. This is the U.K. you know, I mean, this, this kind of total trade, 10% of that and we obviously have a big deficit with those two countries or. Yeah. And I mean like, you just got to figure out how to like what's the baseline for this sort of thing. If we have 10% across the board for the whole globe that's going to weigh on global growth, something that didn't exist. We were coming into 2025.
Melissa Lee
It will weigh. But at least that would be, that would be certainty. Right. I mean, if it were resolved and somebody announced tomorrow it's 10% across the board, I think the markets will be relieved. And at least you have a framework, a basis to work off of Julie Beal. But of course, all eyes are going to be this weekend. The USTR as well as Secretary Besson are going to head over to Switzerland and meet with the counterparts there to initiate conversation with China. President Trump said that he's expecting some, some big things out of there. Other people are saying it's just going to be an icebreaker.
Julie Beal
Yeah, it sounds like it's talks about, talks about talking. Maybe later at some point we might work something out. It's, it's still really, really preliminary. And I think that's the most important point about this, is that if I look at the deal with the uk, this is like our bestie and still we're talking about 10% on our bestie. And that I agree that you, most businesses can really figure stuff out once they have the clarity. But 10% on some companies that have very, very thin margins is going to be pretty tough to actually digest. And I think that's going to be a realization that people are going to have to really incorporate into their estimates and their earnings. Right. A lot of guidance that we've gotten so far through the earnings season has been really vague and it's just because there's nothing they can really latch onto. I think the most important thing coming out of this weekend is some kind of understanding of a framework. And I think what people are really looking for is scale. It's some kind of anchor number that they can put their arms around in terms of not being at 145%. If it's half that, that's great. At least people can factor that into their models.
Tim Seymour
Yeah. The other thing is it's like we keep hearing that the trade war is not in the data. Right. We've seen a bunch of data over the last couple of months or a couple of weeks. Excuse me. And if you hear what's going on in the ports and I know Brian Sullivan was there and I think the network is Doing kind of amazing work on this. It's like, you know, there is this whole ecosystem that exists around whatever boats are not coming in with the contain sort of thing. You know, ultimately I Read this There's 500,000 workers in logistics just in Southern California alone. There's 9 million across the country here. So when you have this sort of disruption and you have this uncertainty, most specifically with China, which is 30% of the manufacturing for the globe, there's going to be ripple effects. No matter what happens this weekend in Switzerland, it's going to take like months to kind of iron this sort of thing out. And so if the data is not depicting what's going on right now relative to the tariffs, it's going to. And I don't think anybody is rooting for that. I think we want to be in a situation where, okay, let's take the 145% tariff down to something reasonable. But there's nothing reasonable. It's not going to 10%. You heard Paul Tudor Jones on the network just a couple of days ago saying even if we go to 50% on China, it's a real, real problem for the country and for the economy. And that's not going anywhere. If they get to 50, that's not going anywhere any anytime soon.
Melissa Lee
Where silver lining guy, because he's not here tonight.
Dan Nathan
Can I silver line?
Melissa Lee
Yeah, please. I was going to silver line because.
Tim Seymour
The silver lining is what you said is what you said is that the stock market's only down 3%. So I don't care how much it's up off the lows or down from the highs, it's only down 3%. That's the silver line.
Melissa Lee
The worst in theory of what the tariffs could be. Yeah, 105%. It cannot go higher.
Dan Nathan
I think so. And I also think that there are goodies to come in terms of other policy initiatives that the markets are going to like. I like also what Dan was talking about in terms of the data points. So, so what we know from last Friday's jobs number and what we also kind of know at this point is that markets are not responding to weak soft data. They're responding to hard data prints. And ultimately right now, until the hard data prints go bad, I think the soft data prints are less meaningful. That's great for risk assets. It could mean risk assets are a little over positioned. And again, I don't know how you spell V. Like are you good at cursive?
Melissa Lee
How do you spell V?
Dan Nathan
Sorry, what are you talking about? Let's try this again. How you would be spelling a. Writing out a V. Sorry but like if you were cursive writing like my kids still have to do.
Tim Seymour
They have to do a V. I think that's what you do.
Dan Nathan
But my V kind of trails off to the side which is kind of what this feels like. In other words, it's not like this.
Tim Seymour
So Tim, what's the discounting though? That's the one thing is you said they can't go higher but we're just talking about when the soft data starts coming in. The soft data, the hard data comes in.
Dan Nathan
I think I care more about hard data.
Melissa Lee
It could be maybe may. CPI is. A lot of economists are saying that is when the inflationary impacts of the tariffs will first be seen in the data. May, that's around the corner.
Dan Nathan
I think it's very possible. I'm just telling you that there's a couple of things that are relatively bullish. The fact is that the tariff dynamic is already out there and as we all said, we've seen the worst of, of the detox period. We've got policy at our tail. We also have some dynamics where I actually think you've got, I think you've got initiatives here that could at least adjust the temperament here. But risk assets have come storming back and so now the question really is, is what's the market position?
Tim Seymour
I totally disagree that we know what the worst is because the cumulative nature of as we get further into the year is just something that I don't think we can quantify.
Melissa Lee
I think we're both.
Dan Nathan
We don't know why did the 10.
Tim Seymour
Year yield rally today? Why afford expectations of inflation both for consumers and for small businesses going higher? Small businesses are going to have a really hard time. We're going to see that.
Melissa Lee
I think that the point though is that we seen the peak of uncertainty concerning pessimism. We have not seen the peak in terms of how much it will hit the economy.
Tim Seymour
Yeah, I just don't agree with that though. I just don't agree that we're past.
Melissa Lee
Because you don't know how it's going to be the death.
Dan Nathan
You do agree with it. We don't know. You're saying the economy.
Tim Seymour
I don't agree with. Just because we know the ceiling on the tariffs that the worst is behind us. Like I don't.
Dan Nathan
We said worst of the rhetoric.
Tim Seymour
No, you said the worst of the uncertainty.
Melissa Lee
Uncertainty on tariffs.
Tim Seymour
Well, I'm not, I'm not sure she.
Dan Nathan
Said the uncertainty on the economy and I think you mean the same Thing.
Tim Seymour
I disagree with both of you guys.
Melissa Lee
All right.
Tim Seymour
And Julie, throw her in there.
Melissa Lee
I disagree with that everybody. Dan's clearly not silver linings.
Dan Nathan
No, no.
Melissa Lee
Anyway, let's move on. Alphabet up almost 2% today, but so far short of recouping yesterday's loss as the Google parent came under pressure after Apple services chief reportedly testified that he thinks I will eventually replace the leading search engine Google. Responding to the comments in a blog post saying we continue to see overall query growth in search that includes an increase in total queries coming from Apple's devices and platforms. Alphabet is still down nearly 6% this week, the worst performing stock in the so called Mag7. So what did you make of this bounce, Julie? Which is not much of a bounce.
Julie Beal
Yeah. Compared to what happened yesterday, it's, it's a little bit cold comfort for shareholders of Google. You know, I think it's a little bit of a sibling rivalry. He said, she's said I did go down. No, you did not. It went up. And I think that kind of tells you just a little bit how opaque some of this data is going to be and how often they really don't want to share that data with each other and with us, the public. But I do think that there is something pretty existential to Google in terms of the ability to use other services for search. I know that there are so many tech companies that are just not even using Google at all. They're using things like Perplexity to do all of their search. And you know, I think that, that who's Google to figure out how they can incorporate most of their AI products into other, into other avenues. And I think it's, what's ironic about it is that Google was really kind of the leader and the pioneer of a lot of this generative AI.
Dan Nathan
Right.
Julie Beal
Most of the great thinkers from the leading labs came from Google and so to see them quite so flat footed is I think a little bit concerning.
Melissa Lee
All right, well, our next guest sees a tough road ahead for Alphabet. Let's bring in Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management. Fast money franging. And it's always great to get your take. I mean, I don't know. Do you believe Google in its blog post? I mean, when you hear OpenAI say that around 400 million users use chatbots on a weekly basis, those users must not be searching on something else.
Gene Munster
That's correct. They're using less Google. I want to just frame in some of those numbers. That 400 million number, it's actually the story is even worse for Google is that it basically took 10 months to go from 1 to 200 million users. It took six months from 2 to 400 million. So you're seeing compressing off of bigger numbers. And it's probably going to hit 800 million at the end of June, which would be about four months between that. So that's going to put it at about a quarter of the Google Daily population is also going to be using GPT. And that's obviously just one of a few generative products. And so the central question that I think that Google investors should ask is ask themselves if they fall into the camp of using generative AI daily, or ask anybody who does, how has your search behavior changed? And I think the answer is overwhelmingly it is a significance, a seismic change. And on top of that is that this effectively puts Google in a very difficult place, into a corner. And that corner is that to monetize what the reason why people love this is this a simple, straightforward answer. It might hallucinate, but they love the simple answer. And that's something by definition that blue links can't give them. So very complex, very complex set of challenges that's ahead of Google and this golden goose that they have is, is showing its age.
Dan Nathan
Yeah, but, so I guess let's think about this week's events though really, as they unfolded, which is that this is a, you know, Apple's not a defendant here yet. They're on the stand. Apple wanted to almost be a co defendant here. Apple's defending a stream of $20 billion. I mean, you think they're going to say there's no one else other than Google out there? I mean, they're saying everything they're supposed to if they want to keep this revenue stream alive. Plus, I mean, how do we not think that Gemini isn't going to be as good as what's out there by the time this really needs to be transformed. I hear you on all the data points we're all getting and the slippage and, and whatnot. But let's understand this week as it went down, and let's understand Google, the company that is going to be as well positioned with the product to do a search for Apple on the world's most important platform.
Gene Munster
I mean, if you play the tape, what we've talked about in the past two years is I think Google is, I thought they were in a great position for all those reasons. And I want to just zero in on the comments from Eddie Q. Because he is, there is a motivation for him to downplay what's going on here. But he's also under oath and my belief is that his comment about search being down within Safari is accurate and that is in fact it's down for the first time. That's about half of the usage of browsers on iPhone is through Safari. And so that's something that you have to. It catches my attention and I've been of the belief I've seen what happened with Redbox and how long that took. I thought that was going to be over before it started. It took 10 years for that to wind down. So there's going to be a tail on this with Google but what we are seeing is that it's happening a little bit faster than what I would have expected. And, and at the end of the day it just comes down to that simple question. How do they create a product that people are going to want that still allows them to monetize?
Tim Seymour
Gene, we're bros, right? You and me.
Gene Munster
Right on.
Dan Nathan
You guys look alike.
Tim Seymour
No, we're bros. Okay. So last night we had an analyst on, very good analyst. He was saying a lot of the same things you were saying about Google and he said they're facing classic innovators dilemma. And so I came in just like this and me and the guy are not bros. I don't know him, I've never met him them. But I said isn't Apple facing a very similar innovative, innovative dilemma here if you think about it that way? Because you know, at the end of the day the fact that they didn't even mention Gemini as one of the alternatives right to their search on their platform, I think I'm agreeing with all you guys. I think they got a problem. IOS this year was meant to be all about Apple intelligence. Right? And we keep hearing about this upgrade cycle that's not really going to come and the best for Apple as far as units are concerned might have been in this past quarter. So, so curious how you're thinking about this relative to Apple because to me I think they have a problem. Two consecutive years of flat units is not a great. It doesn't portend great for their like, you know, the next couple devices.
Gene Munster
So again, a year ago I expected a super cycle this year and the numbers I put it was 8 to 10% iPhone growth in fiscal 25. We basically know or through the June quarter we basically know what it's going to be because we have the guidance it's going to be plus 3% so no super cycle. I was wrong and I think that where I made the mistake was related to these features and are they out and we can debate whether or not those features are going to provide the catalyst for people to upgrade. I fundamentally believe that we're still very early in AI and believe that the iPhone can get much better in terms of doing simple things that can be powered by AI. And so when I think about all the complexities, I mean Apple's got just a laundry list of, of challenges. This has been a rough year for Tim Cook, no doubt, but he's done a great job and ultimately I think that their customers aren't going anywhere. No one's going to get rid of their phone because Samsung guts and I think that's, that's what matters the most, is that the hope of the upgrade cycle, that hope being out there, is all the stock needs to keep moving higher.
Melissa Lee
Jean, great to to see you. Thank you so much Jeanne. Deepwater Asset Management I had to look up Redbox by the way and I'm sure other people out there wondering what I vaguely recalled it. It's literally like the box drop off here, they still have them actually in like they are. I know there's like one on Broadway here, we should go visit it.
Dan Nathan
We might as well go to Blockbuster while we're at it.
Tim Seymour
So Gene also thinks that my Apple take is a folly.
Melissa Lee
Maybe. It's a maybe.
Dan Nathan
Well, I was going to say I don't think he thinks you're bro.
Tim Seymour
No.
Melissa Lee
Okay, here's the question. Alphabet is the only Mega Cap tech stock to trade at a discount to the S&P 500 on a forward basis. Julie Beal Is it trading that way for a reason or is the buy.
Julie Beal
Yeah, I think everyone recognizes this innovators dilemma that they're in right now. But I kind of, there is a part of me that agrees that, you know, the unwinding of search is going to probably be a pretty slow process. We all kind of talk about, you know, wow, there's been so much adoption of ChatGPT and all of these solutions. But if you look at the intensity of use usage, the vast majority of people who are, who are counted in this group of users are using it pretty sporadically. It's not really integrated. And so changing people's behavior and changing people's process takes a long time. I actually think that because Apple hasn't been very good in terms of launching a lot of their AI features, most people don't like the text summaries, most people don't like how they've reorganized the mailbox. I actually think it will in a way impede AI's adoption because people are kind of like, I don't really get what this is for. I think that at the margin you're going to have the super users that we all hear about, and I'm sure we'll see some applications in corporate America as the year goes on. But I do think that broader adoption may be a little bit slower than people are guessing.
Tim Seymour
You know, OpenAI is going to come out with a browser. Chrome, which is by Google, says 65% market share there. I think that that's kind of the thing that kind of flips the switch for a lot of users who haven't gotten used to it. The other thing is Google has to cannibalize themselves to kind of gain some of that share back from open air. So I think it remains a problem for Google.
Melissa Lee
Coming up, a lot of earnings action to bring you shares a lift. Coinbase, DraftKings and more on the move after their reports. The details and the numbers from the quarters next. Plus the tariff impact on pharma, biotech and health care as President Trump promises new tariffs on the industry and an overhaul to Medicare pricing. What it means for all the the stocks Next don't go anywhere fast when.
Dan Nathan
He'S back into Squawk Box tomorrow, a.
Melissa Lee
Special report on cargo theft.
Tim Seymour
CNBC investigates how criminal gangs are attacking America's supply chain.
Melissa Lee
They literally have a license to seal.
Tim Seymour
Squawk box tomorrow, 6:00am Eastern and streaming on CNBC.
Melissa Lee
Plus, welcome back to Fast Money. We've got an earnings alert on Lyft shares jumping after hours despite a miss on revenue estimates. The call kicked off at the top of the hour. Pippa Stevens has all the details from the quarter. Hey Pippa. Hey Melissa. Well, the stock response seems to be all about the buyback, which lift upsize to $750 million after announcing back in February its inaugural buyback program of 500 million. The company's market cap is just shy of 5 and a half billion as of the close, so a pretty large return of capital. And the upside does come amid pressure from activist investor Engine Capital. Now the call did just kick off with the company saying the lower prices they started to see at the end of Q4 persisted into Q1, which saw lower average prices quarter over quarter. Company though did say that in the last week of March, rides reached the highest weekly level in the company's history. In terms of guidance, Q2 gross bookings and adjusted EBITDA were largely in line with analysts expectations. And for more on the quarter, be sure to catch Lyft CEO David Risher tomorrow on Squawk Box at 8:40am Eastern. Melissa, paper. Thanks. Paper, Stevens. So is it going to be bland now?
Dan Nathan
I think it has to be. I mean, first of all, band was kind of a bland acronym. I think we've now spiced it up. So you see what I did there, I just, you know, there was nothing extraordinary about these numbers, but it was an EBITDA and a bookings beat and those are really important things. So profitability. Yeah, I get that the numbers down, they're still up 14% and it was still a record revenue quarter, but it was a slight miss of the street. And so that's on top of buying back 14% of market cap by adding this extra 750 million. That tells you also where the company really believes their best dollar spent is. And right now that also implies, so some, some cost efficiency, some buyback. And if you're a shareholder and there is activist pressure, go at it, have at it.
Tim Seymour
Tim, how about, sorry about, you know, it's interesting you just mentioned the profitability. Why is that important? Well, they have nearly $2 billion in cash. They have about a billion won in debt and now they can do these sorts of things.
Melissa Lee
Things.
Tim Seymour
It's a five and a half billion dollar market cap company. So that's important. The guidance wasn't great, you know what I mean? So it'd be interesting if they just kind of left that buyback alone. I would suspect that the stock wouldn't be up 7% or so. But again, I don't think, I don't think those, those results or guidance were inspiring.
Melissa Lee
Coming up, an update at the airport. The sweeping changes coming for air traffic control as a transportation department looks to clean up some messy flight issues. The details next. You're watching Fast Money live in the NASDAQ Markets I in Times Square. Back right after this.
Tim Seymour
Squawk Box Tomorrow, a special report on cargo theft. CNBC investigates how criminal gangs are attacking America's supply chain.
Melissa Lee
They literally have a license to seal. Squawk box tomorrow, 6am Eastern and streaming on CNBC. Plus I said, you want to go.
Tim Seymour
To New York and see the Fast Money show live?
Melissa Lee
And she said, heck yeah.
Julie Beal
I'm, I'm.
Melissa Lee
A huge CNBC fan. That's why I'm here. I watch Fast Money every day. I don't miss a show.
Tim Seymour
I mean, there's a few shows on CNBC that I just do not miss. And that's top of the list. This event was so important, gave us access to our fan base.
Gene Munster
18 years this has been on my bucket list.
Melissa Lee
Gave them access to us.
Phil LeBeau
It was awesome. This was an incredible experience.
Tim Seymour
The energy in that room was great.
Dan Nathan
Mahalo, Anui.
Melissa Lee
A dream come true.
Tim Seymour
Fast Money Live.
Melissa Lee
Get your tickets now@cnbc events.com fastmoney we seriously have the best fans out there.
Dan Nathan
Not only do we, but I mean, those 10 gallon hats, I mean, we need a few more of those. By the way, I'm laying the gauntlet out there. Yeah, I want to see four 10 gallon hats rather than two this time. It was amazing.
Melissa Lee
By the way, we're doing it again. And remember, Sunday is Mother's Day.
Dan Nathan
Oh.
Melissa Lee
So here's how the two things combine. If you still need a gift for mom, what is better than a ticket to fast one ease? Next live event, book your spot@cnbc events.com all right, let's take a look at the airline stocks taking off today as the Department of Transportation announced a plan to modernize the US Air traffic control system. The change has come on the heels of extensive problems at Newark Liberty over the past week, including reports that ATC lost contact with a commercial plane due to an equipment malfunction. Our Phil LeBeau's got the very latest on all this. Phil.
Phil LeBeau
Hey, Melissa. This is a plan that on paper it makes sense and it looks great. And it will make you say finally, all of the problems that we run into in terms of delays and things that shouldn't be happening at airports with air traffic control, it'll be resolved. Well, yeah, on paper it looks good. We still don't have a price tag and there's a lot of questions about whether or not it'll actually be happening. Here's what the Department of Transportation rolled out today here in Washington, D.C. part of this new air traffic control, and it's going to cost billions of dollars. Upgrade the communications satellites. Over 4,600 sites will be worked on. Replace 618 radars. Build six new air traffic control centers. Some of the other ones will stay in place but be updated. Bottom line is that the air traffic control system would be completely revamped. It wouldn't just be patchwork anymore. Now they've still got some issues, however, adding air traffic controllers. They're 3,000 short. It's going to take several years in order to get the number of air traffic controllers they want. Implementation is also going to take years. Some of this you can do right away. Some of it it is going to take three or four years. And then there's the issue of incremental Funding. Congress is not real big on cutting a big check and saying go to it, which is what the Department of Transportation secretary outlined is his vision today.
Dan Nathan
To do it in three or four years. We need all of the money up front, right?
Julie Beal
One of the problems of the past is when you give small tranches of.
Dan Nathan
Money year over year, politics change, leadership.
Tim Seymour
Changes, presidents change, interest changes, and it never gets built.
Dan Nathan
So I'm going to ask the Congress for upfront appropriations to give us all the money.
Phil LeBeau
So why are the airline stocks all up today? And they moved higher in part because of this news and the optimism about what we might see being developed. It's because there is nobody, Melissa, nobody that you can find here in Washington or within the aviation industry who does not believe that this system needs to be completely overhauled. We've seen an accident here in D.C. this year. We've seen problems in Newark enough. Get it done. Now it's a question of whether or not Congress can do that.
Melissa Lee
Yep. Phil, thank you. Phil LeBeau, I don't know if you notice Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, had to send a memo internally to employees of United Airlines to say that every flight in and out of Newark Airport is, in fact, safe. When it gets to that point, as a member of the flying public, you got to think, oh, that's terrible.
Dan Nathan
Now, look, this is great news. Get the system overhauled. The life at an airport has been awful for passengers, but it's been awful for airlines, too. All we do is talk about the efficiency of airlines lines themselves. And so I think this is very good news. And the other theme of tonight is about buybacks and whatnot. I mean, Delta four or five days ago authorized another billion dollar buyback on top of what's already in place. Between that and extra divs, there's probably 2 billion given back to shareholders in the next three years. I mean, explains to you why airlines, also Delta, who doesn't report until July, there's, there's some Runway, pardon my French here, in terms of where you can track this stock in a rising market. I think the move in airlines today is as much about the risk aggression in the stock market. Delta is now up 40% off those intraday lows in what, a month after being halved. And I think you can actually ride this thing higher. Certainly it's going to outperform in a rising market. And I love Delta on fundamentals. Greatest trading stocks in the market, airlines.
Melissa Lee
Let's ask the former airline analyst what she thinks. Julie Beal.
Julie Beal
Yeah, I kind of agree. I think Today's move is much more about the animal spirits that we saw in the market. But it would be a huge change to have much more modernized air traffic control. I mean, 15 years ago I was an airline analyst and I was appalled to learn really the nitty gritty of how air traffic control works. It would be a huge benefit, not just to the efficiency, but it would allow planes to come in much more efficiently in terms of their routes. It would allow them to descend and come up much more smoothly. They'd actually save on fuel. It would environmentally be good. So I think there are a lot of benefits to doing this. I think taking a lot of stress off of a lot of air traffic control would be a huge benefit as well, and it would all keep us safer. So I think this is a great initiative and a great step in the right direction.
Melissa Lee
Coming up, it's been a rough week for health care as the industry braces for tariffs. Mizzou host Jared Holz is here to help parse through all the headlines this week how he sees the industry shaking out when fast money returns. Welcome back to FAST money. Pharma stocks under pressure today and adding to their losses for the week. The latest move coming as President Trump is reportedly trying to push through a most favored nation policy for Medicare drug pricing that would tie the amount the government pays for some drugs to the lower prices paid by other countries. That plan expected to be announced next week. For more, Mizzou host Jared Hulz joins us with his thoughts. Jared, great to have you with us. President Trump, as I understand, had tried to push this through in his first term. Has the situation, the circumstances, the political environment changed to make this a more likely outcome this time.
Ryan Reynolds
Great to see you. I don't really think so. I mean, it's more the same when I kind of consider what happened in the first term and what's happening now. I think to some extent, you know, there's been some talk that some of the tactics that he's going to use this time around are to essentially make it seem like his administration is going to take a harder stance on pharma than Biden did. So there's a lot of, you know, political ramifications here to consider, but I think it's basically the same thing. We just don't know what the plan is going to be at the end of the day.
Melissa Lee
Do you think ultimately that it will, in fact hurt the ability of pharma companies to price their drugs according to what they think they should be priced at in the United States? Decades?
Ryan Reynolds
I Mean, that's the strategy that this administration wants to take. Now, is that going to come with some sort of consequence in which other drugs are priced higher in order to offset some of the pressure that's going to be placed on them in addition to losing patent exclusivity, in addition to the IRA and all of the other challenges the industry faces? Like that's a possibility. There's also the possibility that the industry, you know, takes some sort of more aggressive approach and prices drugs higher in Europe. Therefore, you know, when they're matched in the U.S. they're matched to a higher base. But I think, yes, I think to answer the question, that seems to be the case. I just not really sure what the industry is going to do in order to offset this completely.
Dan Nathan
Jerry. Tim, Go Leafs. By the way, I know you're happy about last night's victory, but I want to go right to what your investor clients are saying about sentiment here being as bad as it is. Who's sniffing around saying, this is amazing. I mean, I look at, you know, a lot of the dynamics here in terms of the valuations. We know some of these companies aren't even all that cheap here, but sentiment is as bad as I've seen it. We're in a period where we're going to start to have more economic headwinds. This is a very defensive sector. A lot of this stuff may not happen. This, this is typically, we always hear a lot of noise in pharma. I just want to know where investors are.
Ryan Reynolds
Yeah, investors are as negative as I've seen. Is there, is there a point in time in which the buy side becomes more, more bullish, more optimistic? I mean, there's a chance that we get this most favored nation news on Monday and it winds up being not so bad, or at least less bad than feared. And the group trades up a little bit on that just for a bounce, so to speak. But I'm not really sure there's a defensive characterization to be made around pharma. I think maybe you could make the case around other areas of health care, maybe medical devices and others, but pharmaceutical stocks have just been as far from defensive for the past decade or more than I can remember, Tim, because we've got all this drug pricing noise that is kind of ubiquitous. Right. We cannot get away from it. And then we're looking at declining sales because of generic entry. We're looking at the IRA that Biden put in, and Trump seems like he's going to make that worse. So I really don't know if there's an all clear event where the street can come around and say now is the time. I mean again, a bounce here and there. I'm all for it. Hopefully we get one next week. But I think the pressure is still.
Melissa Lee
On the group and we have not even mentioned tariffs. Vinay Prasad Casey, Maine, Right. Junior I mean the list goes on and on for pharma never. Great to get your thoughts. It never ends yet. Thank you. Coming up, more earnings action to bring you Coinbase on the move after reporting results as Bitcoin's back above the $100,000 mark. The details from the coins quarter next. And we're watching Pinterest shares after hours, what the CEO season store for the social stock and the picture he is painting for the company's next move. That's when he's back into welcome back to Fast Money. We've got an earnings alert on Coinbase. Shares lower in the after hours session, a slight revenue miss. The conference call kicked off moments ago. CNBC's Tenaya McKeel has more on the report. Tanaya hey Melissa. Yeah.
Megan Casella
Coinbase reporting a slight revenue miss like.
Melissa Lee
You said for the quarter bringing in $2.03 billion while the street was looking.
Megan Casella
For about 2.12 billion.
Melissa Lee
Instead earnings coming in at $1.94 per share on an adjusted on an adjusted basis. So we're not comparing that number as the analysts usually use. The GAAP figure the stock down after hours on that miss despite an otherwise strong report. For the most part. I just want to know. The stock was up 5% in today's session. So it looks like investors were kind of expecting the strong year over year gains that the company reported. Things were a little muted on the trading front in Q1 given all the macro uncertainty and volatility coming off of that massive post election rally we saw from November to the end of January. But transaction revenue up across consumer and.
Megan Casella
Institutional from this time last year.
Melissa Lee
Revenue from stablecoins up 50% from a year ago. This is their biggest revenue driver after trading. And the market cap for Stablecoins certainly did consistently hit new records in Q1. And finally, Coinbase also gaining share in derivatives, increasing its perpetual futures market share by 60%. So that's interesting. On top of this morning's news that Coinbase is acquiring Deribit, which is the crypto derivatives exchange based in Dubai, so doubling down to win derivatives on the global stage. Melissa Today I thank you to Naya McKeel. I have a question. Tim Day that Bitcoin crossed 100,000 for the first time since February. Why would you be in Coinbase over Bitcoin?
Dan Nathan
Because I think the market is underappreciating Coinbase's exposures, not just being a trading platform and a pathway, but being a real infrastructure. Play between, you know, the L2 and their exposure base I think is actually a big deal. I think it's part of infrastructure. I think it's underappreciated. So the correlation to Bitcoin prices has been something that has been easy to kind of trade the stock on. But Dan, you have something to say?
Tim Seymour
Well, I think correlations kind of blown out of late and I'm going to play a little. Would you rather much rather Coinbase here than than the underlying whatever the thing.
Melissa Lee
Is then Bitcoin, then Nerd gold. Okay, coming up, shares of Pinterest on the move after hours as a company reports results. CEO Bill Ready is joining us today into the details from the quarter and what is it in store for the social stock that is next? More Fast Money into. Welcome back to Fast money. Pinterest shares surging after the social media company reported mixed first quarter results and strong Q2 revenue outlook. Our Julia Borson joins us now with a first on CNBC interview with Pinterest CEO Bill Ready. Julia, take it away. Thanks, Melissa. And Bill, thanks for joining us. Your stock popped on better than expected user growth as well as very strong guidance despite so much uncertainty. What gives you confidence in that guidance?
Bill Ready
Well, you know, we are at all time highs on users and engagement per user. And at the core of that is that we have made Pinterest a shopping destination. Pinterest is where Gen Z goes to shop now and that's delivering great results for our advertisers. And even as you may see some shifts in shopping behavior, we're the place where those users go to figure out what they're shopping for and where they want to go. And that's, you know, letting us deliver great things for users and great things for advertisers.
Melissa Lee
On the call just now there was a brief mention of some pullback in spending from Asian retailers on ads. How concerned are you about weakness in the ad market should these tariffs go forward?
Bill Ready
Well, one of the things we noted as others did that, you know, China or Asia cross border sellers, you know, there's been, you know, some adjustment there. We've also seen them start to sell into other markets markets and even with consumers here in the U.S. you know, we went through a major supply chain disruption just a few years ago with the pandemic consumers are resilient. They'll find other things to shop for. And Pinterest is the place that they go to do it. And as users get more intentional and more considerate about their purchases, Pinterest is a platform for those considered purchases. It's not about impulse purchases, it's about things that you go by when you're being really intentional and planful about what you're doing. And again, I think that lets us just shine through even more in that moment.
Melissa Lee
Yeah, we've really seen you focus on turning Pinterest into a shopping destination. And part of all of this is I tell us how you're seeing AI impact benefits for both consumers, effectively shoppers on the platform as well as for brands, and how much more you think you're going to be able to do for both of those constituencies.
Bill Ready
Yeah, is a core competency for us. At the center of that is the unique curation signal that we get where users, you know, plan ahead what they're thinking about buying, put outfits together, lets us get to know their taste. We talked about our taste graph has grown over 75% over the last two years. But that really feeds our AI recommendation engines. I shared on the call that our new multimodal visual search model outperforms by 30% off the shelf models because of that unique signal and because we have some amazing AI engineers. But that lets us do things for users where users just say, oh, Pinterest just gets me. And so that experience is really based on that unique signal and what we're doing with AI. And on the advertiser side, we've more than doubled the relevancy of our ads over the last two years. That means we're making the ads great content for users and helping advertisers meet users in moments where the ads are actually helpful to the users. That's great for the user, great for the advertiser.
Melissa Lee
You mentioned on the call that over a quarter of all of your coding is generated by AI. Recently heard from Met as Mark Zuckerberg that they're looking at 50% of their coding done by AI. What does that mean for you to have it be a quarter of your coding and will you get to 50% and how soon?
Bill Ready
Yeah, we've made rapid progress on this. It's up 10 percentage points from what it was just a few months ago. And again, AI is a core competency for us. So yes, you know, the thing we talk about the most is what we're doing for users and advertisers, but we're Using it for internal productivity as well, both for engineers as well as across every function in our business. So one of the things you've seen in our business is that not only have we been delivering record revenue, we've also significantly expanded our margins and our profitability. So we're using AI to deliver great ROI in our business, both for what we do with our customers and our users, but also how we get more productive internally so that our amazing people can do more great things for our customers and our users.
Melissa Lee
AI driving efficiency across the board Pinterest shares up over 15% thanks so much for joining us, Bill. Melissa, back over to you. You, thank you very much. Julie Boorston. Of course our thanks to Bill Ready, the CEO of Pinterest. Off the earnings call here. The Stock is up 50 and a half percent. I looked at the short interest, only 4% so it doesn't look like it's much of a squeeze here. What do you make though of this big move?
Dan Nathan
Well, it sounds like a cliche, but it's real in this case. I think the fears around CPG spend and whatnot were massive coming into this. They also, unlike Snap, didn't pull their guidance. So it just sounds like a more confident company. Look, you know, Bill certainly sounded confident and I think he probably should be. Sounds like AI is truly a case where it is making a difference in their business. It is more efficient. You know, I think ultimately they're able to judge their performance that much better than other people right now is a positive.
Melissa Lee
Your quick take Julie.
Julie Beal
Yeah, I think that it's totally true that the biggest opportunity for them is being able to leverage that efficiency. It's absolutely critical for the earnings growth. And I agree with Tim. I think companies that are able to issue guidance really look like heroes in this environment.
Melissa Lee
All right, up next, final trades, final trade time. Julie Beal.
Julie Beal
Yeah, with all the doom and gloom that we're seeing in health care, I think Sertara is a great company in terms of helping them get to market faster with new drugs.
Dan Nathan
Timothy psa by the way, Dan and Gene are bros and in the meantime by Boeing. It's breaking out before from before levels even of Independence Day.
Tim Seymour
Dan Yeah, I didn't have time to drill down on that pins but the fact that it's up 15%. This is a cheap stock. I think you buy it on pullbacks. I don't buy things up 15%.
Melissa Lee
Alright, thanks for watching Fast. See you back here tomorrow.
Phil LeBeau
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CNBC's "Fast Money" Summary – Episode: "President Trump Unveils UK Trade Deal Framework… And The Next Move In Pharma" (Released May 8, 2025)
Hosted by Melissa Lee and featuring a panel of top traders including Tim Seymour, Dan Nathan, and Julie Beal, CNBC's "Fast Money" episode delved into significant developments impacting investors and the markets. The discussion spanned the recent US-UK trade deal framework unveiled by President Trump, Alphabet's (Google) stock performance, challenges in the pharmaceutical sector, airline industry updates, and key earnings reports from companies like Lyft, Coinbase, and Pinterest.
Overview: President Trump announced a framework for a US-UK trade deal aimed at reducing tariffs and enhancing market access between the two nations. The agreement marks a pivotal step in post-Brexit economic relations.
Key Points:
Tariff Adjustments:
Market Access Enhancements:
Notable Discussions:
Key Quote:
"The UK also agrees or will agree to buy $10 billion worth of Boeing products." – Megan Casella [02:18]
Overview: Alphabet experienced a modest rise of nearly 2%, yet remains the worst-performing stock in the Mag7, down nearly 6% for the week. The discussion centered on the company's struggles to maintain its dominance in the search engine market amidst rising competition from AI-driven alternatives.
Key Points:
Notable Discussions:
Key Quote:
"The central question that I think that Google investors should ask is... how has your search behavior changed?" – Gene Munster [14:55]
Overview: The Department of Transportation announced a comprehensive plan to modernize the US air traffic control (ATC) system, aiming to address recent issues such as equipment malfunctions and communication losses at major airports.
Key Points:
Modernization Efforts:
Implementation Challenges: The plan requires significant upfront funding and faces potential delays due to political and budgetary constraints.
Notable Discussions:
Key Quote:
"The air traffic control system would be completely revamped." – Phil LeBeau [26:57]
Overview: Lyft reported a slight revenue miss but saw its shares jump after announcing an expanded buyback program.
Key Points:
Notable Discussions:
Key Quote:
"The company's market cap is just shy of 5 and a half billion as of the close." – Tim Seymour [24:42]
Overview: Coinbase experienced a slight revenue miss but showed growth in stablecoin revenue and derivatives market share.
Key Points:
Revenue Streams:
Acquisitions: Coinbase is acquiring Deribit, a crypto derivatives exchange based in Dubai, to strengthen its global position.
Notable Discussions:
Key Quote:
"Coinbase is acquiring Deribit... doubling down to win derivatives on the global stage." – Megan Casella [36:06]
Overview: Pinterest shares surged over 15% following strong user growth and robust Q2 revenue guidance.
Key Points:
Notable Discussions:
Key Quote:
"Pinterest is where Gen Z goes to shop now... letting us deliver great things for users and great things for advertisers." – Bill Ready [38:44]
Overview: President Trump is pushing for a most favored nation (MFN) policy in Medicare drug pricing, aiming to tie US drug prices to those in other countries. This move is expected to exert significant pressure on pharmaceutical companies.
Key Points:
Notable Discussions:
Key Quote:
"Investors are as negative as I've seen." – Ryan Reynolds [32:04]
The episode of "Fast Money" provided a comprehensive overview of pivotal economic and market developments. The US-UK trade deal framework signifies a strategic move to stabilize and enhance bilateral trade relations, while Alphabet faces mounting challenges amidst AI-driven competition. The airline industry's anticipated overhaul promises improved efficiency and safety, bolstering investor confidence. Earnings reports from Lyft, Coinbase, and Pinterest showcased a mix of revenue performances and strategic initiatives, reflecting the diverse dynamics within different sectors. However, the pharmaceutical sector remains under pressure due to impending tariff policies, highlighting ongoing tensions between regulatory changes and corporate profitability.
Overall Insight: Investors are navigating a landscape marked by significant policy shifts, technological advancements, and sector-specific challenges. The discussions emphasized the importance of adaptability and strategic planning in response to these evolving factors.
For those looking to deepen their understanding of these topics, accessing the full episode transcript and related market analyses on Fast Money's website is recommended.