Closing Bell 11/6/26

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0:56Scott Wapner: Welcome to Closing Bell. I'm Scott Wapner, live from Post 9 here at the New York Stock Exchange. This make or break out begins with the rebound in tech. Whether it can be trusted, we'll ask our experts over this final stretch. Here's the scorecard with 60 to go in regulation. Of course, the focus remains on the NASDAQ. We had a bounce led by most of the semi-stocks today that got absolutely hammered one day ago. Dow is slightly negative. Some of the other infrastructure names in the AI trade are moving higher as well. We're really watching all of it, including Nvidia. It is higher as well today after turning negative for 2026.

1:30Scott Wapner: It's been a rough road of late. We'll watch it right to the finish. SpaceX rallying today, highs of the day there, better than 9%, just reclaiming its IPO price or just about there. Elon Musk making some comments. We'll tell you what he said. We'll have more on that just ahead. DraftKings down a bunch on its earnings and how much it's spending for that move into prediction markets. Now, look at that down 23 percent as well. Takes us to our talk of the tape, buy or beware. That is the question many are asking today following their dramatic sell off in the A.I. trade. Our first guest says selling's overdone.

2:04Scott Wapner: He's Ed Yardeny. He's the president of Yardeny Research. He joins us now. It's good to have you on. You put out a note saying as much. What leads you to believe that? Well, you said buyer beware. We were talking about beware around mid-September, anticipating that the war wasn't exactly over. The midterms were coming and there was uncertainty of what that might imply, particularly for data centers. As we've seen, that's become a real concern. And then, of course, back then the bond yield was going up. But now I think the beware period is over and there are buying opportunities. I think that sell-off we had yesterday had a lot of kind of panic involved in the way things were unwinding.

2:47I think there was a lot of leverage that came undone. And, of course, the knee-jerk reaction was that the Democratic blue wave was going to mean that we'd kind of slam on the brakes of data center construction. I mean, I'm kind of wondering what we're rooting for. For a while, it seemed like everybody was concerned that we were racing too fast down the track on the data centers and that there wasn't enough power and there weren't enough construction workers and plumbers. And now we're seeing that the physical constraints plus the political constraints and the financial constraints are slowing it down.

3:26And I think it's speed bumps. I don't think it's, you know, the end of the road for data centers. So I think it just pushes out, stretches out the building cycle.

3:38Scott Wapner: These look like potholes, though, respectfully, Ed, don't they? I mean, the elections elections have consequences, right? That's what you always hear. And the consequence of this one feels like it might be more dramatic because the result was more dramatic than many people expected it to be. And now you have real questions about where the whole data center build out is going. Well, I think if you're talking about the political constraints, I still view them more as speed bumps than potholes. Look at we had a interview with the governor from Texas, I think it was on CNN. And she said that she's not planning to stop data centers.

4:24She just wants to slow them down. And the state is still going to be open for data centers. You know, there's going to be states that are going to welcome data centers. There are going to be communities that welcome data centers. It's not like we're going to have just a complete freeze on data centers unless Bernie Sanders has his way. Of course, he wants to stop the whole thing.

4:45Scott Wapner: I hear you. And look, you know, people are speaking out about this issue, too, including Lloyd Blankfein, who posted on X just a short time ago. It's not just that, and I'm reading to you, it's not just that the building of data centers benefits U.S. workers with jobs. It's the output, AI, embedded in industrial processes that will increase U.S. worker productivity and competitiveness. Or we can rely on tariffs, which just make imports in our lives more expensive. I mean, there are those who are trying to articulate what the benefits are of data centers. Correct. And even Sarah Fryer, the OpenAI CFO was on the network a few hours ago and said they're basically going to have to go to communities around this country of ours and tell that story.

5:35Scott Wapner: But you have minds to change. And a lot of them, a principal issue in this last election was that very issue. Well, it is going to be a harder sell. But I think when I say harder sell, they're going to have to pony up. They're going to have to prove that they're going to provide their own power, that they're not going to be careless with water usage, that net-net the benefits are going to offset whatever consequences there might be on the negative side. I think that's what's going to happen. And as I said, I think it's a good thing. I think, again, just a few weeks ago, we were all worrying that all this issuance of bonds by the neoclouds was going to overwhelm the capital markets.

6:27Well, the capital markets started to regulate the neoclouds. You know, in other words, we are slowing it down, but that I don't think it could have continued at its pace anyways, simply because of the power constraints and the payroll employment availability and all that.

6:45Scott Wapner: So what you're suggesting ultimately is that the correction that we've seen in stocks like semis adequately reflects the slowdown that you and others are now talking about. Right. Well, it's more than that. I mean, semis are cheap. You know, we're looking now to forward PE of 13. Semis are selling the way they've always sold. They're selling as cyclicals. And here we have, you know, whenever you had very high earnings, that's when you had your lowest PE. And a lot of that had to do with the perception that the high earnings would be used to expand capacity and bring prices down. I think there's an underlying secular uptrend here, clearly, in the use of semiconductors.

7:28And so I think the fact that the P.E. has gone down with earnings soaring creates a buying opportunity. Now, I'm not saying that there isn't going to be an increase in capacity and that there's going to be some moderation in pricing. But the offset to moderation in pricing is innovation. These semiconductor companies are constantly coming up with new chips, and these chips all have high profit margins to start with.

7:55Scott Wapner: But some are arguing that semis were selling anything but how they've always sold, which is, as you said, on a highly cyclical nature. That's why they never traded with high PEs, because they didn't deserve it, because the cycles were ultimately going to end. I get that the debate is either about a much more elongated cycle, but some have taken it even further. It sounds like you are as well into suggesting this is now a secular play when the market obviously has questions about that based on what's happening in the in the whole data center issue itself. Sure. But I think that these are very reasonable concerns.

8:41And I think the market is being very rational and wanting to see confirmation that we're not going to be the same old, same old cycle. I think the important thing that's not being recognized here is the pace of innovation. That's really where I'm coming from, is the pace of new chips. Look, these chips are too expensive. They run too hot. They run too hot. They need huge data centers. And all these semiconductor companies undoubtedly are working on replacements. It'll be much more efficient, much cooler, and will be better in terms of how much space you need to actually operate these things.

9:24Scott Wapner: Is that where you'd start with the buying before I let you go, the semis, first and foremost? Yeah, I think so. Well, whatever got knocked down super hard yesterday is, in my mind, a buying opportunity. You've got a lot to pick at because a lot got knocked down really hard yesterday. Ed, we'll talk to you soon. Enjoy the weekend. We'll see you soon. Ed Yardeni, the president of Yardeni Research. Big tech sell-off raising the stakes for Anthropics coming IPO. Kate Rooney joins us now with more on that angle. What do you know? Hey, Scott. Well, this tech rebound is definitely a sigh of relief for Anthropics executives.

9:56from what we're hearing, all the volatility, though, not great news for their upcoming IPO. I have been talking to investors that have now come to expect or had come to expect, I should say, a$1.5 trillion valuation. But some are now telling me that's a stretch given this entire unraveling of the AI trade. Investors now are bracing for between a$1 and$1.25 trillion price tag, which could put it below SpaceX's June listing. Some of these people did talk about a $2 trillion price tag before this entire tech re-rating. A lot of this is going to depend on what does happen with broader markets. The biggest thing investors want to see now, though, is that the company can get above that last private valuation, which was just under a trillion dollars, Scott.

10:37So Anthropic will also be the first pure play AI lab. So it's going to be a major test of overall investor appetite for this asset class. They're going to be asking institutional investors who pretty much just got burned by the AI trade to buy into the deal. That's one of the challenges. No delay yet from what we're hearing. And part of the tech weakness, we should say, is just about the midterms in general. The risk of a slowdown of the AI build out as Democrats take the House and the Senate. Here's what OpenAI CFO Sarah Fryer told Sarah Eisen about it. Well, first of all, you have to go meet communities where they are.

11:10You have to listen, learn. You have to set a plan and then be accountable. So when we go into communities, what do we hear? First of all, there's concerns about things like electricity. And we, OpenAI, have promised we will never raise your electricity bill. Fryer also confirmed to Sarah that OpenAI is indeed in private markets raising around right now, which we've reported at a$1.25 trillion price tag. So they're out there tapping private markets in the meantime, Scott.

11:37Scott Wapner: The headline of the week is just I think expectations may be more tempered, both on the valuation that you mentioned and then also the comment that Brad Gerstner made on the podcast, which we played yesterday about maybe it brings it towards the lower end of the expected range when it actually does price. Yeah, it's a great point. And I think one of the things I'm hearing today is the comps out there. I mean, a lot of people were looking at SpaceX as sort of a recent comparison and its own slice of the AI business. But the cloud businesses for AWS, for Google Cloud, for Azure are also sort of the comps that I'm hearing that public market investors are going to try to compare Anthropic with.

12:15One issue is just the overall price tag. If we get the October numbers, which I'm hearing could come next week, the latest S1 was Q3 numbers. Those are going to be stale by the time the company prices. So they need to put out those October numbers. Look for those next week to give you a sense of the revenue momentum. If we get some sort of upside surprise there and we get more growth, then that could also support a higher valuation. But I think it's a little bit of sort of people bracing for the lower, maybe worst case scenario, which in a vacuum, you know, a trillion dollar listing is nothing to sneeze at.

12:47But given the expectations, as you mentioned, you know, it's half of what people have talked about this summer.

12:52Scott Wapner: Yeah. All right. Kate, good stuff. Thank you. That's Kate Rooney. Now let's bring in the Wharton Professor of Finance, Jeremy Siegel, also Wisdom Trees, chief economist. Professor, welcome back. It's good to speak with you. Good to see you, Scott. It's been a heck of a week. What's your takeaway from it? I mean, whoa. You know, I didn't really understand what was happening Wednesday, Thursday. There just was a total reversal. I think this is a healthy shakeout. You know, I largely agree with that. I'm not saying I think that semiconductors or the chips are really undervalued right now. But, I mean, you shook out a lot of that really overenthusiasm given all the risks that do face that AI trade.

13:32You know, you mentioned something I think really important. I remember on your new show today, you said the SOX index, the semiconductor index, was up over 100 percent. And, you know, now it's up 23 percent. Well, you know, I had said for, you know, many months that if you're riding the AI wave and you think that AI wave, let's say you have a company that has a stake in it. And that AI wave will be three years and you're going to have triple profits from your normal level for three years. And then it's going to end and you're going to have normal profits. Guess how much your stock could go up?

14:0620 to 25 percent. That's really it. And it's down to exactly that level there. I think too many people look at just, oh, the forward P.E., 12 months. You know, you know, look at how cheap it is. Well, yeah, but you have a very unusual circumstance that, you know, is not going to last. It should be cheap. And, you know, this come down of that index is, I think, a very rational thing. And it really prevents a bubble from forming.

14:38Scott Wapner: But you don't think that semis are cheap, though? I mean, you went so far as to say you agree with Ed, but. And the principal point he was making is that the semis are cheap. I mean, those are the words he used. Yeah, well, I think they're fairly valued. I guess he's implying now maybe you should overweight them in your port. I'm not saying. I mean, he'd buy them today. He'd buy them today. OK, so he really thinks that they're really undervalued. I think that they're they're fairly valued. And, you know, there's a very wide range there. I think all these AI stocks have now really come down to fairly valued, given the risk that the cycle may be shorter, given the risk that anything can short circuit it, given the political risks, you know, going forward.

15:25you know, it's now at a fairly valued rather than an overvalued position. And by the way, take a look at what GDP was this morning. Wow. I mean, excuse me, the payroll report was this morning. That was really strong. The productivity that we got earlier this week was really strong. I mean, this economy is beginning to show the AI productivity gains that we had all hoped for and waited for.

15:54Scott Wapner: I mean, one of the reasons people are so worried in the market, you know, you have rates going down and everything else, is because the same GDP that you mentioned is driven 75 percent of which right now by AI infrastructure build out. So any hiccup in that is going to give you a hit on GDP. We just can't really afford to have that when the bulk of your GDP growth right now is due to this entire ecosystem. Yeah, but that's hope. And I agree with you that this rotates. I mean, listen, there's all this talk about what's going to happen with Iran. If we can bring that oil back to 70, 80, I think that's a huge boost for the consumer and psychologically.

16:39Logically, we even got confidence up today in an announcement. I think the confidence is going to turn positive, and that consumer spending is going to take up any slack that we might have in AI investment.

16:54Scott Wapner: Professor, enjoy the weekend. We'll see you soon. Thank you very much, Scott. Let's talk about Apple. It's holding up relatively well in this sell-off. Investors focusing on its strong balance sheet, among other things. For more on that stock, we're joined now by Eric Woodring. He's Morgan Stanley's head of tech hardware research. Hey, welcome back. It's nice to have you. Hey, Scott. Thanks for having me. I mean, Apple's flat on the week. It feels like it's up 20 percent relative to everything else. And one of the reasons why we wanted to have you on. What do you think is behind a more stable performance this week?

17:25Sure. I think I think there's maybe three things. Simplistically, historically, Apple is viewed as being more defensible. That can be the balance sheet that can be the high retention rates of the iPhone, but that's one factor. I think another factor is it's viewed as kind of the antithesis of the AI trade, right? They're spending$9 billion annually on CapEx. You know, the rest of the mega caps are spending upwards of a trillion dollars collectively, so they're not making as big of a bet as the rest of the market is making. And then third, if you want to really take a true fundamental reason, if we think that the election can lead to some form of permitting issues with data centers.

18:04That could create an inventory glut with memory. An inventory glut with memory would lead to lower pricing. Lower memory pricing would be good for Apple gross margins. And that has been a key kind of bear debate on Apple right now. So that's connecting a lot of strings together. But those would really be the three reasons that I would look to and say why Apple is outperforming this week.

18:25Scott Wapner: If services are slower and margins are an undeniable headwind, how can estimates be where they were? Yeah, well, listen, this is the challenge that the market is facing, which is there's kind of a macro aspect to this. When you're driven by fear, you kind of go back to your your defensives. And Apple is viewed as that. At the same time, I remember back in 2018 when I worked with my predecessor, we made the call that as services was becoming a bigger part of revenue and gross profit dollars, that the multiple should expand. Now we're facing somewhat of the opposite scenario where services is decelerating, and it's decelerating from some of the core businesses, App Store, and then they talked about some weakness in the third-party licensing, which is search.

19:09Those are the two highest margin businesses in services. So services decelerating, hardware holding up well, but ultimately what that means is your kind of multiple expander is weakening a bit, and then also obviously gross margins are still a challenge. I always say there's three things that you need to get right on Apple to get the stock right. iPhone, gross margins, and services. Two of those are not working in Apple's favor right now, so it is quite surprising to see Apple holding up relatively better, but it does show you that the market is focused on maybe bigger picture factors rather than the true kind of micro idiosyncratic factors that would maybe reverse that viewpoint.

19:50Scott Wapner: I know but you just literally made the case for why it does not deserve to be trading at the multiple it's trading at. Right. Well we should also step back and say we're talking about a quarter. What if we said you know three quarters from now we could have visibility into Apple reaccelerating services growth. And you could look a few quarters beyond that and say maybe gross margins expand. I don't want to get too much into short termism. But to be totally fair Scott I think that view is actually fairly correct in the short term which is. if the 2018 thesis was services, services, gross profit mix increasing, multiple expanding, you know, there is an argument that you could make in the short term that the reverse is true right now.

20:28Scott Wapner: So Apple dominates our conversation. In the time we have left, though, I want to ask you about Seagate, which is your top pick. Sure. You have a 1148 target overweight. Honestly, somebody on X who watches our programs wanted me to ask you because they're wondering how could that be? Isn't this a name that's so caught up in the data center infrastructure conversation? Yeah, no, it's front and center. Again, it kind of hit 52-week highs around June. It's down 60%. You know, it's been a very challenging four months. And I think the challenge that we're facing right now is, you know, we spent time with management this week in Boston and New York.

21:10Fundamentals sound fantastic right now. You know, checks yesterday tell you that the supply demand gap is widening. But what we wrote in our report yesterday was as long as this market is focused on AI financing, AI capex, the fear behind that, you know, this is a higher beta name that will underperform in the short term. But again, we saw the same type of behavior in April of 2025 during Liberation Week, and the stock 8x after that. So yes, there are more risks today, there are plenty more questions that we need to ask about the sustainability of growth. But when I try to think about the fundamental difference between sentiment and valuation and the fundamentals, you know, there does still seem to be an opportunity.

21:51I will just admit that in the short term, we're still going to underperform as long as fear is driving this market.

21:58Scott Wapner: I'm sorry, my only pushback on that would be what I gave the same pushback to Tom Lee on yesterday, was that Liberation Day was, as some would describe it, an unforced error that you could easily reverse. You hold up a placard with huge numbers, and then you say, well, I don't really like the stock market reaction to all this. I can dial that back. Changing public opinion regarding data centers is a little heavier lift, don't you think? I think that's fair. It's probably a little more publicized than I think it is boots on the ground, to be fair. But again, the real challenge is we just don't know.

22:31The market hates uncertainty, and there's plenty of areas of uncertainty that we can point to. So it's a very fair point of pushback and why I would agree that in the short term, the pain trade is probably still lower.

22:44Scott Wapner: Always enjoy the conversations. Eric, thanks again for joining us. Thanks so much, Eric. Woodring, Morgan Stanley. Shares of SpaceX, highs of the day. Seema Modi tells us exactly why. Hi. Hey, Scott, we have new comments here from Elon Musk, who just joined the Barron's Investment Conference virtually, talking everything from data centers, TerraFab, Starlink, Space. Let's start with the tweet from Musk before his appearance. He says SpaceX gets less than 10 percent of revenue from government this quarter. He added that the number will go down to 5 percent a year from now. The questions, of course, have been emerging as to whether Elon Musk will be investigated under a Democratic Congress, specifically around SpaceX's contracts with the government.

23:22He also adds that SpaceX's annual reoccurring revenue by December 2027 is likely to exceed$500 billion, and that$1 trillion is not out of the question. On the data center front, Musk says the unpopularity of the projects across the country is, quote, a temporary concern and that one way to alleviate some of the local pressure on data centers would be to move them off the planet. We're watching shares of SpaceX here riding the market rebound that we're seeing right now, trading right around its IPO price of$135 a share, Scott.

23:53Scott Wapner: All right, we'll watch it over the next 35 or so. Thanks, Seema. We're just getting started here. Up next, dynasties or parity? That's the fight in sports. Alex Sherman breaks down that battle over salary caps in professional sports, why it could lead to a very big showdown in Major League Baseball.

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25:37Scott Wapner: Decap or not decap, that is the question right now in professional sports as Major League Baseball heads towards a potential work stoppage. CNBC sports reporter Alex Sherman joins us now with more. It seems like that's where we're heading, right? Yeah, Scott, this is not the first time the two of us have talked about this on this show, and it certainly won't be the last as the collective bargaining agreement for Major League Baseball is set to expire December 1st, at the end of December 1st, and then that will likely lead to some sort of lockout, potentially even missed games. And it's all, the center issue for all of this is whether or not Major League Baseball should adopt a salary cap.

26:14Now, from a players an owner's perspective, the issue is fairly straightforward. Players want to get paid as much as they can. Many feel like a lack of a salary cap allows them to do so. And owners want to put some sort of ceiling on how much they have to spend across the board, no matter what major league team you're on. Although obviously there are certain major league teams that spend a lot more on players than others. But the more interesting subject of this in my mind is what's best for the fans. And it really boils down, I thought at least, to this issue of parity versus dynasties, right?

26:46If you have a cap, then you kind of level out the field. And if you don't, you allow teams like the Dodgers or the Yankees to just spend year after year after year. And so I proposed this this week to a person that I've seen others refer to as Rob Manfred's economic czar, Rob Manfred being the commissioner of Major League Baseball. His name is Morgan Sword. And Morgan said, actually, we kind of like dynasties. Dynasties aren't bad. Dynasties can be wonderful for a league, but we need to have rules in place that allows for dynasties to happen under fair circumstances. And he pointed to the NFL, which of course has had several dynasties recently, including the New England Patriots, which had a 20-year dynasty.

27:30But they did it in a hard cap scenario where Major League Baseball feels like the rules were fair for all teams. And that's the difference between the NFL and the MLB today?

27:43Scott Wapner: I mean, the players union would say, what are all y 'all talking about? Tampa is like a 40-whatever size market. It's a population in the country, and Milwaukee's like 30th. And they just played in the World Series. And Scott, you can go back further than that. There have been 10 different World Series winners over the past 13 years. So it is a very strong argument from the Players Association that this whole issue of competitive balance is nonsense. And in fact, I'll go a step further. There is an argument to be made that the Players Association has made that says, you know what? The best way of breaking a dynasty is by taking away a salary cap.

28:32So that NFL example that Major League Baseball is using to say, look how great the rules are. Well, if you didn't have a salary cap in the NFL, you would have potentially allowed more competition to come in and break up that New England Patriots dynasty or the Kansas City Chiefs dynasty, which continues into real time. So I think reasonable people can very much come to different sides on this argument, which will make for a very interesting next few months in Major League Baseball.

29:00Scott Wapner: Yeah, it certainly will. We'll see what happens. Alex, thanks. Appreciate it. Alex Sherman. Coming up, market trying to find its footing today after this very volatile stretch. What could drive the next leg? We'll ask our guests next. With the Discover Cashback card, it's payback time when you earn cash back on everyday purchases. Activate and earn 5 % cash back at different categories each quarter on up to$1 ,500 in purchases. That's 5 % cash back at different places each quarter, like grocery stores, on gas, and at restaurants. It pays to Discover. Terms apply. See discovery.com slash five for details.

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30:37Scott Wapner: On where things stand as we approach the close of this week. Joining us now, Partners Group's Anastasia Amoroso, CNBC contributor, Payne Capital's Courtney Garcia. It's good to have you both here. Good to see you. It's been a week. It's been a week. It hasn't been a week. What do you take away from it? I mean, look, I think the markets are questioning all at once whether what we plan for is going to continue. meaning as the data center trade is going to continue. And what I make of it, I think it is an overreaction to the overconcentration. And what I mean by that, everybody's so in on the AI trade.

31:08And what happened is everyone everywhere started to question, what if it doesn't go as planned? What if we don't build as many data centers as we thought we would? What if the semiconductors don't have the shells to go into? So that's why we got the reaction that we got. But what I make of that, Scott, I don't think that's actually grounded in reality. Because when I think about the data center space, when I talk to our infrastructure team, actually what we think is most likely to happen. It's not whether the data centers are going to be built, it's where and how they're going to be built. And there are alternatives, I will say, even if the state of Texas, the state of Georgia, the state of Ohio has a change of policy.

31:42Scott Wapner: No, but if it's pushed back, it directly impacts the earnings on a more near-term basis of some of the stocks that ran up in anticipation of all this happening just smoothly, doesn't it? That's right, and I think that's why we need to have some adjustment for that. But I will, Scott, I think we have to be really, really discerning within the ecosystem. And I do agree completely that NeoClouds in particular are going to be the most impacted by this, because if you think about their business model, they buy the CPUs, they rent them out and they contract that revenue, but that revenue doesn't actually hit their books until it is earned, until the chips go into the ground.

32:16And by the way, only 25 % or so of their capacity actually has a data center to go into. So I do think that's a really impacted part of the market. The other one is semiconductors. And I think there are two headwinds. First of all, you know, the likes of Anthropic are laser focused on squeezing as much as they can of every unit of compute. And I think over time, they're going to be successful. And then the other issue for semiconductors is you actually have a lot of these residual value guarantees, and they're on the hook potentially for whatever happens with the neocloud. So I don't like those headwinds.

32:51I prefer the hyperscalers.

32:53Scott Wapner: Okay. So one of the key questions I heard tossed around this week was, can the bull market continue without the semiconductors? What do you think? First of all, I think it can, but I also don't think this is the end of the trade. I think there's two conversations that have to be had there. And I think when you look at a lot of these names that got hit really hard this week specifically, these were some of your best performers coming into this year. So you look at things like Micron or AMD, those are still up over 100 % since the beginning of the year, even with this pullback. So I think the question is how much is this an unwind of an overcrowded trade?

33:25And at this point in time, you're seeing that we're now expecting there's going to be a slowdown in the data center space, but how much of that actually happens, I think, is the question. Like you're already seeing that maybe this gets pushed back, maybe it's going to other states, but people are expecting that there could be as much as like 20 % of that CapEx getting pushed out at this point is already priced in. And if that's the case, you probably want to start to use some of this as an opportunity.

33:46Scott Wapner: Some look at the stat that you would say, okay, well, Micron, for example, or whatever name is still up over 100%, they would look at that and say that's a negative. What that tells me is that, that's what they would say, is that that just shows you that the stock has a lot more to go before it reaches the equilibrium that makes sense in what may be an inflection point in the story. It could be. And I think we really need to start to see the earnings expectations come down and really where that's going. This is just a knee-jerk reaction we're getting at this point in time. But I am still in the belief that the build-out is going to happen.

34:19Is it going to slow? Is it going to go to other places? Potentially. So actually, I think one of the best ways to play this is looking at the infrastructure build out. I think that's going to happen regardless of which companies benefit, regardless of which states benefit. That's going to happen. It's just getting pushed out in the future. Yeah, I think that is spot on. It is not whether it's going to happen, it's when and where. And by the way, Scott, if you look at the states, 60 % of the states still have somewhat supportive stances towards data centers. So I do think that data center companies, hyperscales, will be able to pivot to some of those directions.

34:50Scott Wapner: What about other parts of the market? I know it feels like it's been a horrific week for everything. And the reality is it hasn't. Week to date, financials are still green. Discretionary is green by 3%. You know, Staples, defensive, green. How do you feel about the rest of the market? I think the rest of the market is actually in pretty good shape. You know, health care in particular is in really good shape here today. Look, if you look at the earnings trajectory for the rest of the market, it's actually been accelerating. And it's not that bad. Something like, you know, 15 or even 20 percent for the rest of the market.

35:22So I do think what happened this week is a really important reminder to investors is you have to be invested in the rest of the market. Look, I feel good about the numbers that we got, for example, from payrolls this morning and the fact that the three-month average growth is accelerating nicely. And by the way, not only that, but the kind of the diffusion, the number of industries that are creating jobs is also rising, which is a positive. If you look at credit card spending, Scott, it's 5 % or 6 % year over year. So I think you do want to look to those parts of the market.

35:51Scott Wapner: Can these other parts of the market be like a life preserver if the market's going to get a lot choppier in the deepest end or no? Yes. I mean, we saw that earlier this year, right? There were a lot of areas that were holding up in the markets even when the AI trade wasn't working. And I don't see a reason that that wouldn't continue to happen. It is absolutely a reason you want to stay diversified as an investor. But what we had been doing, so before the election, is bonds have been a really good opportunity with interest rates rising. Let's say there's a better opportunity in the markets. That's something you can take from and buy back into the markets if it's an opportunity.

36:24You always just want to make sure you have somewhere you can pull from because long term, these pullbacks are always going to be a good opportunity.

36:30Scott Wapner: All right. Good catching up with you both. We'll see you soon. Thanks for having us. All right. We're tracking the biggest movers next. All right, we're about 10 from the bell. Back now to Brandon Gomez for a look at the key stocks he's watching. What do you see? Hey, Scott. Shares of DraftKings plummeting after the company slashed its full-year outlook, saying it would spend$600 to$700 million expanding its prediction market business. It's also reported a Q3 miss on the top and bottom line. You can see shares down about 21 % today. Next up, you have Firefly Aerospace surging on a$1.3 billion deal to supply engines to AST Space Mobile for a new rocket.

37:01The rocket BlackLift is the satellite communication firm's latest move to amp up its global cellular service. Firefly and AST SpaceMobile both up on the news there. And then Cloudflare trading up as third quarter revenue grew more than expected.

37:14Scott Wapner: The company raising its revenue in EPS projections for the year. That stock you can see climbing almost 11 percent, Scott. All right, good stuff, Brandon. Thank you. Brandon Gomez. Coming up, Neocloud's getting a big break today after a brutal week. The worst of that selling over ore is more pain ahead. Break it down in the market zone. Coming up. All right, we're now in the closing bell market zone. Mike Santoli and CNBC contributor Wilmington Trust Megan Hsu are here to break down these crucial moments of the trading day. Plus, Oliver Rennick is standing by live from the CBO Global Markets in Chicago.

37:43Scott Wapner: We'll play options action coming up. Seema Modi looking at this week's big moves for the neoclouds. Taneya Mikheel watching Bitcoin as well for us. Michael, leave us with a good thought here as we head into the weekend. Sure. Sure. I mean, after a day like yesterday, Scott, you know, I always say the market has to go into the concussion protocol. You're kind of testing all of its responses and everything else. I think today is a bit indecisive on that front. Obviously, it's good that you're not seeing more of that forced liquidation in the hardest hit parts of the market, a little bit of upside relief in semis and the rest.

38:15But in general, this is not an assertive response to oversold conditions. So I still think you have the tactical case that you've gotten a little bit washed out. One thing that surprised me this week, among many actually, is that the semis and AI hardware trade was, I guess, a little more crowded and had a little more complacency than I might have thought after months of kind of grinding declines. And so now you've had an extra purge in that area. So maybe it can can rebase the other part of it. We've talked about this a lot. The defensive parts of the market had performed so well over the last month.

38:48They haven't been able to really offset some of that weakness in AI. So, look, we're holding above the 200-day on the S &P, I guess, going into the week. VIX at 24, as Oliver might talk about, is sort of a noncommittal level, and it shows you that maybe there's still some unfinished business in this pullback.

39:05Scott Wapner: Your point's well taken. The market's definitely still on the injury report. It was limited in practice today. We'll take any participation, though. What do you got coming up in just a short period of time? Yeah, we'll get around all of that. We got Bob Elliott. We have Stephen Whiting. But also, we've got an analyst to talk about health care and whether Moderna and the other pharma stocks can maybe present a little bit of support for the tape. All right. We'll see you in less than seven. That's Mike Santoli. Don't forget overtime coming up at the top of the hour. What do you see in Chicago, Oliver?

39:37First, a great framing there by Mike. Non-committal. I can't put it better than that, Scott. And that's why I'm looking elsewhere. SpaceX in particular. A lot of things changed this week. But some things never change. namely traders' devotion to Elon Musk's space business, despite what arguably could be fresh political headwinds, and the stock itself, which is back trading almost exactly where it IPO'd, around 135. The stock's up 8.5 % today, bouncing back, and of the 1.3 million options traded, 840 ,000 were calls, with more open by buyers than sellers. The top 10 contracts right now are all zero DTEs about to expire, including some comical one cent, 175 strikes.

40:21But if you look out, the most popular contract to buy today was the 200-strike expiry for December 18th, which cost 31 cents and needs a 50 % comeback in SpaceX to work, Scott.

40:35Scott Wapner: All right, nice and timely to look at that for us. I appreciate that, Oliver. Thank you very much. Let's go to Seema, who has a look at the Neoclouds. Big day, big rebound today for the Neoclouds, Scott. IRON's earnings report calming some concerns with its AI cloud revenue soaring in its latest quarter. CEO Daniel Roberts calling the move a disconnect from what he's seeing at the customer level. We did report that Microsoft is not renewing one of its cloud contracts with Oracle and that Microsoft is looking to, in general, consolidate its list of neocloud partners that it rents compute from. Even with today's move, IRON, Nebius, Corweave are paced to end the week lower and are down sharply on the month.

41:13this as we count down to some pretty big earnings reports next week. CoreWeave and Nebby, Scott.

41:17Scott Wapner: Oh, good stuff. OK, we'll definitely be watching those. Seema, thanks so much for all your work for us this week. Seema Modi. All right, Taneya, tell us about Bitcoin now. Yeah, we're actually seeing two themes emerging simultaneously within crypto here, Scott. So Bitcoin ending flat for the week at about 75K. And this has become mostly a macro-sensitive institutional investment. And then big crypto, think Coinbase and Circle. Those are under pressure. of course, amid uncertainty over the midterm election results this week, which many feel pushes crypto legislation off until 2028 at least. However, Scott, we are seeing a rotation within the sector out of big crypto into blockchain-based financial infrastructure.

41:59So think exchanges, custody, lending, tokenization, and all of this as the industry collectively tries to move away from its speculative trading focus. And then the hybrid Bitcoin miners surging, rebounding after the initial pressure they saw this week. The market has been valuing these names as scarce power and AI infrastructure assets for some time now. And so you see them surging today alongside some of the buying that we've seen in some of the AI stocks and what Seema was just talking about. Scott?

42:28Scott Wapner: That's a good checkup on that trade as well. Taneya, thank you very much for that. Megan Hsu, what's your biggest takeaway from this week? Yeah, I think my biggest takeaway is that we're reminded of the perils of trying to trade geopolitics. It's been a crazy week and we've had to fit the narrative to the market to some degree. But I think ultimately the three big issues remain AI, oil and the Fed. Obviously, we're talking about a potential slowdown in the AI build out. I've actually been on here talking about these rolling waves of pessimism being a good thing for the longevity of the market.

43:06And I think that could be the case here as well, where as long as we are slowing, maybe being a little bit more deliberate about the build out and not terminating it, which I don't think is the case, it could make for a healthier environment, maybe fewer supply chain shocks along the way. And I think we have the potential for oil and for the Fed to turn this market around, even if pessimism remains on the AI front. The Fed is in a bit of a bind right now because we've got a very good labor market report. If inflation stays sticky and the market is selling off, it puts them in a tough spot for December.

43:39Scott Wapner: Is this a buy right now, this market? I asked the question right at the very top, buy or beware? Sounds like you argue the former. We are overweight to equity, so I guess that puts me in the buy category. We're not necessarily adding to risk right here. I think the market performance today was encouraging. A little bit tepid and heading into the weekend. It could really go either way on Monday. But I think if you're willing to look out over the next 12 months, I think the overall AI story remains intact. I think the earnings are there not only from energy and tech, obviously, but also from the rest of the market at about double digit earnings growth.

44:20That's very solid. So I think there's some strength there. I think the economy is on good footing, not too hot, not too cold. And I think that sets us up for a decent end of the year and a solid start to 2027.

44:33Scott Wapner: Would you lean into some of the areas that play on the economy more directly? Let's just say financials, some of the more cyclical things, industrials, discretionary, some of the areas that have lagged for a while that are going to end up actually finishing the week, some of which anyway in the green. Yeah, I think those cyclicals, including discretionary financials, many of the ones you just listed, are tied to those second two points, oil and the Fed. We actually have a view that inflation is really not that much of a problem. The economy is probably not quite as hot as it looks on the surface.

45:08And the Fed is not going to need to hike rates more. I know that's not the market's view, but could actually be cutting in 2027. So that does put us in a position of liking cyclicals, small cap in particular. I would stay up on the quality stack within small cap and with the market at large. We're in a bit of a quality rotation. I think we could see that within tech and within other parts of the market as well. But yeah, I think that there's an opportunity for some rebound, especially if oil can act as a bit of a stimulus for the market in 2027.

45:42Scott Wapner: Talk to you soon, Megan. Thank you. That's Megan. She's going to be from Cross. They're clapping every night this week. The week in which we have the worst drawdown for stocks in about 18 months since Liberation Day. in 2025. And we'll finish mostly in the green today. Not for the Dow, but the Nasdaq gets a bit of a rebound. We'll see how things shape up next week. Enjoy the weekend. Let's go over time.

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