that just ain't -- cap-x, that just ain't going to cut it. according to bloomberg, the tally is now $650 billion since 2012. analysts expect they're going to add another $90 billion to the that after the close. that's a lot of money. a lot of people say, yeah, that helps the stock, maybe even manipulates the stock, but that hasn't worked this year, right? apple shares have trailed the other mag if 6. -- mag 7. names. tim cook is going to have to do something with respect to a grander vision. he doesn't have to change everything, but a buyback program? nobody cares about in that at this particular point. everyone wants to see what is apple's a.i. strategy. now, tim cook is a brilliant guy, ap 8's an -- apple's an amazing company. you have to expect maybe they understand that and they'll see that, but if they don't, i think the shares are going to slump. it's the not that i would sell it, but i think liz claman would agree. liz: i agree with anything you

say. [laughter] charles: i knew i loved you for a reason. liz: charles, thank you very much. breaking news as we kick off the a final hour of trade. take a look at apple ahead of one of the most anticipated earnings reports of the season. apple shares right now up 2%, very close to session highs right now. after the bell the tech giant opens its quarterly books to investors who, you guys know this, are very anxious to see the company reveal profits and sales. now, analysts expect to see the biggest revenue decline in more than a year, but shareholders will likely cast the most scrutiny on iphone sales which do account for about half of the tech giant's revenue. that's where things could get ugly. china iphone sales have slumped s and globally iphone users have been holding their purchasing fire on a new device until apple incorporates a.i. into its handsets. sales could plummet by as much as 10.4% although, let me just say this caveat, apple sometimes

underpromises and overdelivers. smartphone chipmaker qualcomm having no such problem, hitting a 2-year high after the company reported blockbuster jumps in both handset and automotive hip sales, both of which have a.i. features already build in -- built in. you're about to hear from christian kno ammon, he's going to join me live in just a few minutes not only only the sizzling hot earnings report, but we will try to get him to give us a window into apple's iphone sales because with qualcomm's mow dumb, rf modem systems are in all iphones and will be through 20262. to the markets this day after the federal reserve left interest rates in place for the sixth time in a row. dow jones industrials up 355 points. nice move here. the s&p up 50, the nasdaq -- [laughter] a big gain of 1.5% or 237 points, and the russell, biggest jump in percentages here,. 1.6%

or3 3 points. fed chair jay powell did juice the market at certain points yesterday. the dow soared 530 plus if points right around this time when he didn't say that a cut in rates was coming, but he also said that a hike in rates was not on the horizon. the excitement though a short shelf life. the dow gave up nearly all of that. the s&p and nasdaq ended up closing in the red probably because powell made clear he will not cut rates until inflation drops to the fed's 2 % target there. so you can see this big move if up and then, yeah, they did not win the day. to get there, the economy needs to slow a bit more, and tomorrow we'll get the all-important jobs report for april which might give us a hint here. but looked at this, the economy is expected to have added a robust 243,000 jobs last month with a still-tight labor market and rates higher for longer, is

it time to lock in a sure thing by buying treasuries? 2-year yield right now, 4.89%. let's get to the floor show. in his first interview since the fed's meeting yesterday, wall street 's biggest name in bonds, blackrock's rick reider joins me right now. okay, rick, you've been distilling what powell said for the past 202 or 23 hour -- 20 or 23 hours. the last time you were here, two months ago, you said two rate cuts starting probably in june. are you ready to amend that? [laughter] >> so i'd say a couple things. remember we were talking about -- everybody was saying they were going to cut in march, it was crazy. the markets were way ahead. june felt like the right time, you could prepare the markets. however, service-level inflation has stayed sticky high. 6.6%. and, by the way, it's a service-oriented economy. it's a big number. so, yes, i think they've got to give it a bit more time. listen, i thought the chair did a really good job. at the end of the day, are you really bringing down

service-level inflation by keeping the funds rate this high or hire as many are calling for? he's just going to sit on his hands for a bit. we need to see service inflation come down. by the way, goods inflation is zero or slightly negative. it's service-level inflation, insurance, education, health care costs. it's pretty hard to use the funds rate to move those. so he's just going to take a bit more time. but, listen, i still think he can get a cut or two done this year -- liz: okay, but hold on. i need detail, rick. >> yeah. liz: when and by how many? >> so, i mean, he can't -- listen, he's probably going to wait til the fall, but, listen, it's not out of the realm of possibility -- liz: september and november are both considered fall. >> right. my guess is he starts in september. it's not out old of -- out of the realm of possibility if he goes before in that, but i think he's going to wait and see the data, and we've got to see that service-level inflation come down. i've given a bunch of oppressions to show this, you think about what's happening, you're really hurting -- the

goods economy, the inflation's come off. small business, local banks, you're hurting lower income by keeping the rate here. you really need to to get it down. by the way, we're talking about inflation of 2.8, core pce -- liz: it's not that a bad. >> it's not that bad. how many jobs do you want the take people out of to slow the economy to help you bring down health care costs? it just doesn't work. and so i think -- and he was very clear, he would like to bring that funds rate down, and it's going to -- the bar for raising it is quite high. liz: stubborn inflation. now, the data, you just pointed out services. >> yeah. liz: we have gotten the alphabet soup lately. eci, hotter than expected. cpi, hotter than expected. certain parts of the pce, personal consumption expenditure. retail sales. i mean, we could put up this alphabet soup on the screen -- >> yeah. liz: look at all of this, adp national employment report yesterday, hotter than expected. all of this shows a pretty decent economy, does it not?

>> listen, i know we talked about it a bunch, you remember people were saying recession, hard landing, soft landing? the u.s. economy is in good shape. incredibly resilient. and i think it'll keep chug whiching along. -- chugging along. i think you get 2% real gdp if this year, and you get 4.5% nominal gdp, pretty good. people criticize the fed getting there on inflation. if you said at the beginning of this year we're going to have 4.5 nominal gdp and a little higher inflation but wages, particularly for lower income, are higher, you're putting millions of people to work. i mean, literally a lot of it's come in, we filled a lot of these jobs with international through immigration, listen, i mean, it's not a bad thing. when you increase the supply of labor, put a lot of people to work with an economy that's got a lot of debt on it, it's not a bad thing. people criticize we need to get it from 2.8 to 2? i'm more interested, just keep the economy moving. we have got lot of debt on this economy. liz: okay.

fed chair powell juiced the markets, as we said at the top of the show, at a certain point p. i think it was around 2:41, yeah, 2:41 p.m. eastern during that news conference. here's what he said, and it wasn't about a rate cut, it was about a rate hike. let's listen, you can react. >> i think it's unlikely that the next policy rate move will be a hike. i'd say it's unlikely. you know are, our policy focus is real already what i just mentioned which is, which is how long to keep policy restrict we've. you asked what would it take? you know, i think we need to see per if swaysive ed that our policy stance is not sufficiently restrictive to bringen inflation sustainably down to 2% over time. that's not what we think we're seeing, as i mentioned. something like that is what it would take. we rook at the totality of the data, answer to that question. that would include inflation, inflation expectations and all the other data too. liz: is he going to have to eat his words on no rate hike? >> listen, by the way, he said

it's unlikely. if inflation is stubbornly high for longer or starts accelerating more, will he have to raise them? he could. i don't think he's going to get there. there's a number of things that'll happen that keep inflation around this level. the tricky thing is getting it down from here. i would argue the fed's mandate is two. it's price stability. 2.8 is not that horrifying. 5 is horrifying. liz: okay, let's talk to the investor out there who still thinks there may be a moment where they should put some money in treasuries only not so much the t-bills at the moment or, but look at something that we pointed out that we saw today that we thought was rather unusual. it wasn't so much that the 2-year is where it is, it's where the 55, the 7 and the -- the 5, the 7 and the 10-year yields are,they're basically exactly the same. 4.58. everybody look to the right-hand side of your screen. 5-year, 4.58%, same as the 7-year, same as the 10-year. so can you give me a sense of

which part of this curve you would park money in? >> i say markets are never if easy. there's one thing that i think's easy. you know, historically i've been in the bond market. when with you lent companies money, the longer you lent them, a, is the company going to be around, b, i need to get paid for my money being out longer. today why take the risk? i would argue sit in the 2 to 5-year part of the curve -- liz: okay. >> keep this yield, and, by the way, i run this etf, we're clipping 6.80 yield buying credit, buying agency mortgages d. liz: this is binc. >> it's our blackrock -- liz: that's the yield, 6.58%? >> 6.8. and, by the way, we're not taking that much risk, and our interest rate exposure is about two and a half years. so -- and we're buying a lot of high quality, average rating is high bbb. this is for fixed income. if you can get these yield withs without taking that much risk, i don't have to buy a lot of the emerging markets, a lot of ccc

yield with. you stay pretty high quality -- liz: why not? >> and you clip a lot of yield. if you're building an equity portfolio, you know, historically people say i don't long interest rates because the hedges -- why? do it. just build income. put equities next to it, and you have a lot of nice balance, and you're clipping a lot of yield along the way. liz: while you were speaking, we just hit session highs on the dow, up 379 points. so stocks and bonds are pretty interesting at the moment, rick are. thank you. >> thanks for having me. are. liz: rick reider. and the headline there is that he says september, first rate cut in september, right? all right. we'll see you then and hopefully earlier than that. at this hour nails are being chewed on wall street ahead of apple's earnings release after the bell. so this is a year to date picture for the stock, down 10%. since the start of 2024. so the stakes are very high for investors. but the company, the iphone giant depends on for its rf if modems which basically maximize wi-fi and data speeds is making a bigger move after its

quarterly report. that would be qualcomm. and ceo christian know amoan is getting in front of our cameras right now. we're going to ask him how how china's suddenly soaring smartphone market is powering his semiconductor success story. "the claman countdown" is coming right back, and the dow can just keeps going higher. we're now up 386, so you can't move. see you in a minute. ♪ ♪ as an independent financial advisor, my promise to you is simple. as a fiduciary, i promise to put your interests first, always. i promise that our relationship will go well beyond just investment decisions. it's the intersection of your money and your life where we can make the biggest difference. [announcer] charles schwab is proud to support the independent financial advisors who are passionately dedicated to helping people achieve their financial goals. visit findyourindependentadvisor.com

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liz: qualcomm shares are popping 10 right now to $1800.43. may i just -- 180.43. it was less than a year ago, may, about may 24th of a year

ago, that this stock was at $1011. so we're looking at a more than 2-year high after the smartphone chip maker or showed massive gains in its automotive and and hand item set businesses and gave a much more optimistic outlook for the current quarter, revenue coming in from $8.8-9.6 billion. analysts had projected $9.0 billion. here's what investors are really dialing up. qualcomm said sales of chips the chinese android phone makers have ballooned 40% in the first half of its fiscal year. let's find out more from cristiano amon who joins us live. nice move in the stock the, certainly, but to me, that's one of the biggest surprises in your report. what has suddenly awakened the premium chinese smartphone buyer? >> look, here's how you should think about the smartphone business in general, in the only in chai nap. i think we said a couple quarters ago that the market

would stabilize, and we see the market is stable, but the big news is really that the mix has improved. people are choosing to buy a higher tier or premium tier phone, and that's where we shine. that's where the snapdragon 8 series is the undisputed leader within that android segment. and what we have seen is really the premium tier was resilient on a market which is even for the year flat to slightly up, and we're starting to see the first innings of users starting to experiment new g everything n-a.i. on devices, and i think that is driving the flagship, and i think we're very happy with the results. i think the premium tier has been good results globally and especially in china as you mentioned, a big 40% up for the first half of the year. liz: yeah. 40% in the first half of a gain there. with every name you've got a whole bunch of these names of

phone companies out there, and that leads me to just in that i'm interested in knowing. you guys have flown under the radar, not just you, but a lot of the smart if phone chipmakers have sort of flown under the regulatory radar which the nvidias of the world have not because they have actually had to stop selling certain chip cans to china if they are a national security issue. your guys' chips so far have not. have you modeled for the potential of that at some point? >> look, some of the conversations especially if you look at export controls, i think the commerce department has been clear. a lot of the restrictions that have been imposed on semiconductors focused on national security. they did not really impact chips going into phones, into pcs, into cars. and the way i think about our china business is if you have a leading technology and you have a differentiated technology that people want, it's just a

function of the market size to have a big business in china. but the interesting thing is in china, those oems even as huawei reentered the space in china, those oems have not lost share, and they're holding strong. and for us, it's been a great story. aiz. liz: apple, of course, is a very big customer when it comes to rf modem systems. i'm not asking for proprietary information, but channel checks done by barclays show a drop in the last couple of weeks of double digits. and that's compared to year-over-year. can you give me a sense at all about the demand for the mow e dem chips -- modem chips that go in the apple phones? and tell me about, specifically, how those are dealing within china. >> look, i cannot comment if on specific customer demand, but all i can tell you, what i can tell you about our apple ip is it's great. we've been executing to what we

said before. we have a multiyear agreement with them until '26. we've been executing. i think we're happy with the position that we have in modems. we recently announced the x-80 which is the most advanced cellular modem in the world, and it's the one that has the next wave with of 5g which is 5g advanced. and if i believe the modems are going to become more important especially in the era of gen-a.i. especially if -- besides not having any other device, when you're doing a.i. on the cloud, you want an instant response. it's like having a voice call. you want the latency and the response time, and that requires a high quality modem. liz: you guys are firing on just about every cylinder and the automotive industry too. thank you so much for coming on to talk about it, and we'll continue to watch this and. of course, after the bell we get apple, so maybe we'll get a little more granularity. thank you. >> great talking to you. liz: you bet. cristiano amon of qualcomm.

the national hockey league playoffs are in full swing, and fans are tuning in at record levels? yes. nhl commissioner gary bettman walking down our hall right now, first on fox business, to tell us why he thinks the stanley cup playoffs are so hot compared to previous years, so hot they could melt the ice. there's gary, he's coming up. and the company known as ice, intercontinental exchange, that's the parent of the new york stock exchange, not as 40 hot. first quarter miss. stock is down about 1.7%. they had a first quarter revenue if miss, specifically. we are coming right back with, he shoots, he scores, gary bettman of the national hockey league. ♪ ♪

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liz: oh, boy, there you go! hockey fever if hitting team "claman countdown" whoo! [laughter] tata's our control room. i know, poor kings. the l.a. can kings, they lost. okay, okay. this as a the national hockey league skates into the stanley cup playoffs. it's riding a regular season ratings high as viewers or per game jumped 8% year over year to an average a of 504,000 across abc, espn, tnt according to nielsen. it marks the highest turnout for the nhl in eight years, and that's carrying over into the postseason. the first round of the stanley cup playoffs also breaking away with an average 798,000 per game

for a 3% year-over-year with boost. this as going prices for an nhl team go sky high. the arizona coyotes just sold for more than a billion dollars and will head to utah. i want to bring in the longest serving commission per of any pro league in the u.s. here first on fox business with, nhl commissioner gary bettman. >> there's a lot of information you conveyed there in the intro -- liz: you're at "claman countdown." i know that hockey has gotten more and more popular as the years go by, but this particular year what is driving much more viewership? >> well, there are a couple of things going on. one, over the last three years our ratings have increased at least as much as you've indicated, if not more for each of the years. i think the most important thing is what takes place on the ice. our game has never been more competitive, it's never been faster, the players have never if been more skilled, and the game's never been more

entertaining and more unpredictable. i think we either set a record or were close to come from behind victories in the regular season and, actually, the rating numbers were probably understated for the playoffs because for most of the games in the first round, teams can go side by side with the local. but hockey is a game, it's in a great place. the business has never been stronger if -- from an attendance and ratings standpoint, and i think we have over 700 national partners. it's a good time to be associated with the game. liz: again, though, you and i have always been onboard. i'm a huge hockey fan since i was, what, 5? >> kings, if i remember. liz: i are -- will say, when i'm in new york, rangers. >> that shows flexibility. [laughter] liz: exactly. i want to get on the ice there. go, rangers i, now. you and i, as i say, we've always understood it. however, it feels like maybe perhaps you've got so many major market teams that are in the playoffs this time around. >> that's part of it, but i also

think, again, it starts with the game itself. and we've had tremendous efforts over the last few years to be as a game at all levels more welcoming, more inclusive. a lot of youth programs reaching out to underserved communities, so it's a combination of everything we've been doing over the years that has grown and, again, pointing to the ratings, i think disney, espn has done a great job as has turner, tnt, which has been after our switchover from nbc. liz: let's talk about the arizona coyotes. that was one that didn't quite work, and it is now being transferred over, bought by ryan smith and his wife for $1.2 billion or so? >> that's what's been reported. liz: yes. we're going with that number. that's pretty good, isn't it? >> well, actually, it's a little more complicated than that. the coyotes are inactive. and what was transferred the utah was the hockey operations expect player contracts -- liz: that's all they got.

>> and they're a new franchise, no expansion draft, and the own or of the coyotes has the right for five years to reactivate the coyotes if he gets a new building if in greater phoenix for the team to start playing within five years. no league's ever quite done a transaction like this, but it was an attempt to deal with both a short-term problem and a long-term problem because the team had been playing in a college facility, and it's been doing it for a couple of years, and we were looking at another 3-5 years best case. and it didn't work and it wasn't fair to the players. liz: okay. but the utah team, they don't have a name yet, they know they're going to go to with utah, not salt lake city, but they apparently have an unbelievable number of wait lis0 miss? >> 30. liz: now it's 30? we have an old number. >> well, that was the number within 24 hours. but i believe they're over 30,000 deposits --

liz: oh, my gosh can. well, you can take that down. the arena only holds about 17,000, just under. >> it's a good problem to have. [laughter] liz: i was going to say, good problem to have. really quick he on the olympics. >> yes. liz: the milan winter olympics, gotta know what happens here. i think it's great that now the nhl is going to allow the players to participate once again, but you struck a tough deal, didn't you? >> well, it wasn't tough, it was really more a recognition of how important it is to our players to represent hair countries. and going to the olympics, taking a break in the middle of the season, no other major league does that, is disruptive on a whole host of levels. but in terms of the profile of the game and, again, most importantly, this is something the players really wanted. and so we decided if it was that important, we would do it. liz: well, good. and you'll be able to use some of the content from the olympics to promote the game which only helps the situation. can we take one more shot of our

control room? because i love -- [laughter] >> please. liz: they're all a geeked up about the national hockey league numbers here. when we do that, it's interesting to see -- there they go. whoo hoo. >> hockey fans are the most passionate. liz: ah, there's the lightning. bring back, oh, god, the whalers. that's who i want to see. [laughter] >> well, that's a long story. liz: gary, thank you very much. >> great to be with you. liz: and the revenues for the league have just jumped exponentially sense you've been there, so many happy years ahead. >> thank you. liz: peloton feeling the burn right now. let's take a look at that stock, falling 3.8%. actually off the lows of the session as the fitness company announced ceo barry mccarthy will be stepping down after two years at the helm. peloton also announced it would cut 15% of its global work force in an effort to reignite growth. this comes after it posted a narrower than expected loss in

its fiscal third quarter report. more dramatic setbacks for peloton, and it's a $3.09, stock. however, around airbnb is rolling out pretty cool new stays. shares of the vacation rental giant getting a slight pop, up about 11%. they turned from negative to positive after unveiling a new lineup of experimental listings from some of the world's greatest icons. airbnb has created new stays for consumers to spend the night in the ferrari museum. the balloon house from disney's animated movie "up," the x-men mansion and even prince's purple rain mansion. not bad with. air bn if b at $1577.800. -- 157.800. wendy's sizzling higher after it increased investments in advertising paid off as strong breakfast with sales fueled etc. first quarter profits. the burger chain said e the modest expansion in the company's margins was due to higher e or prices offset by fewer customers and higher labor costs. we'll see how long that lasts.

wendy's reported a first quarter earnings beat while revenues did miss the street's expectations, but you've got wendy's up 2.33%. you've got higher prices maybe helping wendy's, but what about the company hoping you'll put down that fresh, never froze ifen burg wither for a plant-based substitute? the ceo of impossible foods is here to tell us if prices are a problem and whether anish s po might be in the near future picture here. it's a fox business exclusive. we're cooking up that story when "the claman countdown" returns. dow jones industrials gaining 303 points. ♪

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liz: e burger king parent restaurant brands international is getting a little hotter here, up 11.33% after reporting earnings above expectations -- 1.33. it also beat same-store sale showing growth of 4.6%. that is absolutely something mcdonald's can't say it did. mcdonald's stock has been hit

over the last year. you can see, down about 8 over the past 1 months, blaming -- 12 months blaming the results on price hikes squashing demand. that's a problem restaurant brands is seeing for now not a problem, attributing a big part of its latest earnings to its burger king revamp. it announced it's going to spend an additional 3000 million towards modernizing the chain because the first part did so well. burger king has seen big changes in the last 5 years alone like the impossible whopper, a plant-based burger made by impossible foods which is now marking five years on the market this august a. but with americans pinching pennies when it comes to meals, pricier brands could be facing maybe some impossible challenges at restaurants or on grocery shelves? let's ask ceo peter mcginnis joining me on set in a fox business exclusive. do we have that right or wrong? [laughter] i know what you're going to say -- >> you have it wrong, liz. liz: make the case.

>> pricing is important, and inflation has hit grocery stores, restaurants, all aspects of our life. the reality is in the last year and a half we've gone down about 22% in price. and you've seen the animal products go up about 20. so the gap has never been more narrow in terms of pricing k. and we're actually below grass-fed organic. we are still premium to what i would call the well, you know, basic beef. but very, very narrow. so we're seeing no price elasticity. so we have double-digit growth year to date and some really good momentum. i'm not doing sommer or salts and cart wheels yet, but we're seeing green shoots and if positive signs. liz: burger king was one of the first to strike a deal with you a couple years ago. how are those sales doing? >> burger king's great, hence the five years. liz: they could have cut you guys loose, they did not. >> well, if it didn't work, they'd cut us loose. we have a very good partnership with them.

and they're very pro-plan-based, and the impossible whopper is really, really good. i mean, it is impossible to tell the difference, pun intended. and it does real well, and it brings new customers to them. so i think it's a mutually benefiting partnership. but, i mean, we're in every starbucks as welsh ihop, applebee's. this is from bear burger, this is from mama if fuku where the brand started. liz: we've got these on the set. >> yeah, they're good. liz: i've had the one at bear with burger. sometimes i just show up and i don't want red meat because i alreadied had it this week. i love red meat, but i try and limit it just because. and i really don't see a huge difference in it. duh i think so much of this has to do, too, with where the consumer is at the moment. and, again, the price. so you talk about how your prices have come down -- >> sure. liz: let's talk about what you're seeing overall when it comes to inflation. >> yeah, i mean, look, i think finish and it is, and, by the way, we love food service

because it's great to get introduced to the brand at bear burger. liz: i mean, look at all these partners you have. >> yeah, no, it's great. [laughter] but,,s look, if you look at the animal industry, heavy human capital in the factories, herd size has been culled, right in input costs are high, right. >> use a lot of water. drought has hurt that industry -- liz: this avian flu -- >> avian flu, so there's a lot of influences affecting that business. we don't have any of that. so, and, by the way, you say you are the target audience because we want meat eaters to tart to end corporate our products into their diets. and, you know, this is zero cholesterol meat. so it's not a bad idea of to have some zero cholesterol to go with the cholesterol. liz: i'm a -- >> i didn't mean to name you. liz: when are you going public? >> when we want to. we're lucky enough to control

our own destiny. we're well capitalized and we're growing and performing. and our latest win is whole foods. so we just continue to chip away. and i think there's so much upside at our business. we have very little tdps. people think the plant-based industry is dead. we have, like, under 11,000 distribution -- 1,000 distribution points, and there's 9,000. so we're just getting started. we're in 50,000 food service locations like this, there's 1.4 million. so we're number one in food service, but there's another, you know, over a million to go get. so, look, we're performing, we're well capitalized, and we don't need to, luckily. will. liz: okay. >> so we'll go when we're ready to go, when it's beneficial and adds the most value to not only the company, but our investors. liz: and you will tell us first here at "the claman countdown." [laughter] >> exclusively. liz: keep going. listen, it's commerce, it's capitalism -- >> oh, totally. this is a business. liz: yeah, exactly. good for you. >> thank you very much.

take care. of. liz: paramount's exclusive negotiating window with skydance is set to expire tomorrow, and now new buyers are entering the fray. charlie breaks it next on "the claman countdown." ♪ ♪ (psst! psst!) ahhh! with flonase, allergies don't have to be scary. spray flonase sensimist daily for non-drowsy long lasting relief in a scent free, gentle mist. flonase all good. also, try our allergy headache and nighttime pills. hello, ghostbusters. it's doug. we help people customize and save hundreds on car insurance with liberty mutual. we got a bit of a situation. [ metal groans] sure, i can hold. ♪ liberty liberty liberty liberty ♪ in theaters now.

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♪. liz: so let's put up shares of paramount global. right now, this is a move, 13 1/3%. after lease week's departure of ceo bob bakish, the 3 eo, triple headed corporate leaders, three ceos all at one are facing a deadline tomorrow to reach a deal with what people have expected would be skydance but now two new suitors are somehow coming up from behind on the track here? charlie gasparino. >> well we knew they were interested. liz: but they're getting closer? >> they're getting closer. here is what they did at paramount, excuse me, sony has taken the lead and apollo have expressed in buying paramount for 26 billion. it's a non-binding letter. i still don't, i still can't get my hands around this. if you have 26 billion, you put

it up you do the deal, here it is based on due diligence going through the regular processes. that's not what is going on here. so be real careful in this in my view. the second thing is, i think we'll have to wait until after the bell for this, within the next hour or so the special committee monitoring all deals tear paramount be as you show shari redstone has been shopping this forever, dealing with skydance on exclusive which ends tomorrow, for all i know they will get an extension on that. an extension would signal they're not looking very keenly on this offer. why aren't they looking keenly on this offer. liz: i would think an extension means they need to more time to look at offer. >> sorry, i dropped my phone. liz: i tried to ignore it but you're not very cool. >> if there is extension on

exclusivity, they're dealing exclusively with skydance. that means they're not dealing with the apollo-sony merger y would they want to do that? from the other side, apollo side, the zone any side, i've been speaking with those folks, the skydance side, redbird side, shari redstone side, we would want to see money if you have it. that is lot of money. do they really want to pay 26 billion for this? they have a market cap with today's move about 10 billion. they're paying 2 1/2 times, right? that's, that's number two. and number three, thank you for saying that in my ear, i was going to say that -- liz: 8.6 billion. >> 8.6. paying more than two times for it. then on top of it, we have the regulatory hurdles. sony is owned by the japanese. apollo has money from god knows what. they say it's all cash. we'll see where it's coming from. i would say both the trump

administration, if it comes in and the biden administration if it stays will have real issues about foreign ownership of something like this. that means if they litigate, a good chance they would to predevelopment this deal, either doj or -- liz: they wouldn't let sampson buy roomba. >> look at what is going on with the japanese trying to buy u.s. steel. if there is litigation, talking about two years down the road here. be careful with this i know, someone who has covered mergers and acquisitions for a long time, if you want to buy something, you say here my money, i'm going to put it up and the check is here, here is how we raised the money. if it is binding, if it is real money they accept it, you have to go through with it. that's what elon did. elon tried to back out. no, no. liz: serious for twitter. >> but, the judge was going to throw the book at him, so he eventually paid up. so remember --

liz: i think that is why byron allen is no longer piping up about this? because he had put in a pretty generous offer, said he had financing. never -- >> i like byron. i mean i, i spoke with him about this. you know said he had the money but you know, there was doubts about it. if he does where is the money now? liz: exactly. >> so, let's just say that skydance drops out and then all this regulatory stuff starts coming out. liz: oof. >> where is the stoke going then? 13 to 5? i don't know. remember if you're playing this on an arb basis which a lot of people do, be careful here. there is a lot of moving parts. liz: charlie, thank you. okay, closing bell, we're about five minutes away. what does that mean? well, nasdaq, s&p, dow, russell they are all moving higher, anywhere from 3/4 of a percent

for the dow up to 1.7% for the russell but let me just point out, when you say five minutes away, that also means we hear the bell and that's when apple comes out with numbers just minutes away from the quarterly results. investors are keeping a hawkeye out for two letters, a.i. what will the apple's a.i. strategy ahead of the developers conference next month? the stock is in need of some sexy headlines. let's bring in laura martin, needham's analyst. will they get the headlines? will tim cook come out and bring up a.i. and a whole bunch of issues when it comes to their strategy and rollout? >> i think they have to. the fundamentals here are very weak, very poor. negative revenue growth in four out of last five quarters. we're expecting negative revenue out of the quarter they are about to report. they need eyes off the income statement because of weakness in china. they need to focus.

a.i. is a great headline how they will incorporate a.i. in siri. how they will not get left behind by alphabet and amazon in the generative a.i. new revenue streams. so they really need to focus on a.i. they need to stop focusing on new iphone colors which is what they focused on last quarter without mentioning a.i., or generative a.i. liz: that was a disappointment for a lot of people waiting to hear something exciting about what is the sort of stock popper now and that is, anything a.i. but you have got to have substance behind it. i know they have been working. they have some of the smartest people there in cupertino but can i get your outlook own the iphone, how they will talk about a.i. possibly being somehow implanted? we had the qualcomm ceo on. they're already shipping lots of chips that are a.i. enabled for smartphones. it really juiced the sort of white phone and phones in china,

the androids, yet we're hearing the channel checks show that apple has really spleen a slump in their chinese iphone sales? >> yeah. so i mean i think apple is slow but i, typically they don't miss the bet. they have this wonderful install base of over a billion people that just buy the next iphone. i assume they will catch up now on a.i. but they need to like -- and the problem is they have negative revenue growth at a time they might have to spend a lot of money intoo greating this generative a.i. stuff into their products. that will be bad for like returns on capitol outlook if they go into a cap-ex ramp along with negative revenue sales but they have to compete. liz: they just shut down their apple car unand that probably was a big chunk of change they waved good-bye to. what is your call on apple iphone sales for what we're expecting after the bell? we're hearing anywhere from a drop of 10.4% year-over-year?

>> that's a hill liar than where we are. we're saying china will be down 15%, but that is only 15% of their revenue. i think we're about half that level in terms of the drop in iphone sales but the question is, whether those people are lost to their ecosystem. they have billions of, actually two billion active devices and a billion four iphone users. so, you know, it's a long time before they lose their install base which is their core asset. liz: what would cause you to lower your buy rating right now? you have a buy on a 220-dollar price target? >> yeah. so we would have to have them to say they have a lot of catchup to do, basically they will spend, verbiage what meta did, we'll spend a ton of money on a.i. we'll not tell you it is revenue linked. it is defensive. if they tell you that script, what meta did, i would be much less optimistic about the next 12 months for this stock.

liz: laura, what do you like out there? what are your favorite stocks in the overall media tech space? >> this big cap land we're talking about we really like amazon's strategic position because they're sort of amassing third party language models and providing the cloud backbone. any app driven off all those third party large language models can never lose aws it is very sticky. that is 30% margin business at amazon, compared to a 1% margin business at the core business of amount son which is e-commerce. so like the margin expansion going on because of generative a.i. at amazon. i like alphabet because they have three proprietary large language models. they're buying their cloud business right now. ultimately these i think are really big revenue drivers. [closing bell rings] liz: laura, thank you so much, we really appreciate it. amazon above 3% today. major averages set to close tomorrow. we will see yo