Big Tech Bounce… And An Economic Warning From JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon 4/14/26

14 Apr 2026 · 44 min · 17 chapters

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In short

Fast Money covers a broad market “bounce” led by Big Tech/MAG-7 and semiconductors, plus financials strength, Bitcoin breaking key levels, and sector-specific debates (software/AI, autos, Netflix, airlines, quantum). It also includes JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s warning about “increasingly complex economic risks,” and a discussion of potential United–American airline merger talk.

Guests

Jeff Richards (Notable Capital; investor in Anthropic; long-term investor in AI infrastructure and software). Gerard Cassidy (RBC Capital Markets Global Financials Research co-head).

Key claims

Big Tech rally reflects normalization (weaker dollar, copper near highs, oil easing) and sentiment/VIX compression, but the setup for earnings is “a negative V” and could be fragile. Software/legacy vendors face AI disruption because AI is shifting to a consumption/token model; private AI/cloud beneficiaries are capturing net-new spend. Banks may re-rate due to lower capital requirements and stronger profitability, but remain cyclical.

Notable examples

NVIDIA 10 straight green days; SMH semi-ETF at all-time high; Citigroup highest since 2008; Claude AI website design tool; Meta–Broadcom AI chip manufacturing partnership; United–American merger reports; Netflix price-target upgrades ahead of earnings; Bitcoin above 76,000.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Market Insights on Tech Stocks

1:48 to 3:40

Analyzing the performance and factors driving the gains in tech stocks.

“NVIDIA notching a tenth straight day in the green, tying its longest ever winning streak.”

Market Dynamics and Risks

3:40 to 7:22

Discussing potential risks in the market and the implications of geopolitical events.

“I mean, but that is just remarkable when you think about it.”

Earnings Season Expectations

7:22 to 11:19

Exploring expectations for the upcoming earnings season and its market implications.

“And even if the war ends tomorrow, there are a lot of disruptions.”

AI Disruption in Software

11:19 to 14:00

Discussion with Jeff Richards on AI's impact on the software industry and investment opportunities.

“You have tax cuts that are taking hold right now.”

AI's Disruption of Legacy Software Companies

14:00 to 16:58

Explore how AI is reshaping the software market and the challenges faced by legacy companies.

“Well, one of the biggest disruptions to companies like Adobe and seat-based companies like Salesforce and others is a lot of what's happening with AI is it's being consoled on a consumption model.”

Strength in Consumer Sector Amid Uncertainty

16:58 to 18:51

Discuss the underlying strength in the consumer sector and its implications for investments.

“What do you make of the malaise in the software sector?”

Semiconductor Trends and AI Partnerships

18:51 to 19:47

Analyze trends in semiconductors and partnerships shaping the AI industry.

“And, Tim, this goes to your semiconductors, and they win in this trade.”

Airline Industry Dynamics and Potential Mergers

19:47 to 20:44

Examine the dynamics of the airline industry and implications of a potential merger between United and American Airlines.

“I mean, like we sound kind of bullish and some of us have been less bullish than the others here.”

United and American Airlines Merger Discussion

22:20 to 28:00

Delve into the implications and market reactions surrounding a potential merger of United and American Airlines.

“Shares of United and American Airlines taking flight today.”

Market Dynamics and Consolidation Trends

28:00 to 28:50

A discussion on market consolidation trends over the past two decades.

“I think they've certainly happened during periods where individually I don't think that there have been.”
Show all 17 chapters

Celebrating World Quantum Day

30:09 to 31:19

Discussion on World Quantum Day and its significance in the tech world.

“An international event promoting public awareness and understanding of quantum science and technology.”

Bitcoin's Resurgence and Market Sentiment

31:20 to 33:19

Analyzing Bitcoin's rise and the sentiment surrounding crypto investments.

“And if you want to play it with IBM, the original on AI, the original on quantum, you could do it that way or you could do it this way.”

Insights from J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon

33:20 to 39:42

J.P. Morgan's performance and Jamie Dimon's perspective on economic risks.

“Coming up, what a top bank analyst makes of this morning's results.”

Auto Stocks and Market Reactions

39:43 to 42:00

Discussion on the recent performance and outlook of major auto stocks.

“Wells Fargo still is a turnaround story, which is still unbelievable.”

Discussion on Automotive Stocks

42:00 to 43:36

Learn about insights into automotive stocks and their market behavior.

“to understand that their internal combustion engine business or hybrids are interesting, but that the companies have never been run better.”

Netflix Earnings Expectations

43:36 to 45:50

Explore expectations for Netflix's upcoming earnings report and market trends.

“Netflix shares jumping almost 3 % today after Moffitt, Nathanson, and KeyBank both raised their price targets on the streaming giant.”

Final Trades Discussion

45:50 to 46:49

Get insights into final trading recommendations and market strategies.

“Yeah, if you look at a 50-year chart of Citibank, you're a buyer.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

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1:01Tim Seymour:Live from the Nasdaq market site in the heart of New York City's Times Square, this is Fast Money. Here's what's on tap tonight. Big tech in rally mode, the MAG-7 adding a combined$400 billion in market cap today. The Nasdaq closing at its best level since the end of January. What's behind the gains? And can the momentum last? And bank on financials, Citigroup hitting highs last seen 18 years ago as earnings and revenue handily beat estimates. Is it time to go all in on this group? We'll get some answers. Plus, Bitcoin hits a key level. Netflix gets some Wall Street love ahead of earnings. And a slew of upgrades in the auto sector of stocks hitting the accelerator.

1:36Tim Seymour:How much higher can they go? We will debate that. I'm Melissa Lee. Coming to you live from Studio B at the NASDAQ. On the desk tonight, Tim Seymour, Steve Grasso, Dan Nathan, and Gaia Dalmi. We kick things off with the massive bounce in big tech. NVIDIA notching a tenth straight day in the green, tying its longest ever winning streak. It is up nearly 20 % in that time. Those gains helping push this SMH semi-ETF to an all-time high. But it wasn't just chip stocks leading the way. All but one member of the MAG7 up today, meta-jumping more than 4%. Even the long-suffering software space up a percent, though it did close off its highs at the session.

2:11Tim Seymour:Western Digital, Seagate, Marvell, Lamb Research, and KLA Corp, among the tech stocks hitting records today. So what do these moves tell us about the state of this market? Should we read into this big bounce in tech, Tim? I think you should read into it. And I think it's not just today. I mean, I think semis have been outperforming and leading this market higher. But you're definitely honing in on the outperformance of mega cap tech. And I am talking about at least the mag six. Apple's been kind of quiet. The fact that we're talking about NVIDIA up 10 straight days and we haven't talked about the last nine.

2:45I mean, it's amazing what this market is doing. And if you look at the Nasdaq, the fact that we are 13 percent up off that intraday low. And what I think is interesting is there are catalysts and there are drivers to get somewhat excited about these names again. And I realize it's just about maybe the broader news flow. But, I mean, the Amazon deal, I'm sure we're going to talk about today. The optionality that I think exists for a number of the mega cap tech plays. I also think that today continues to be about normalizing. So that means weaker dollar. That means copper price is going to near all time highs.

3:16We're even getting some good news in private credit. So it's taken markets higher.

3:20Melissa Lee:It is pretty remarkable, though, when you think of a name like Mike Brown. We were sitting on the desk the night that that guidance came out. I mean, it was remarkable. I mean, the quarter that they put up and then the stock proceeded to sell off 33 percent. I mean, think about that. And a guy, you're good at math. Yeah, well, apparently not. Well, I don't know. I think I think we need to try it out. We got to crunch the numbers. The stock went down 33 percent from an all time high. And now it's up 50 percent. Break even. Wow. I mean, that is some good stuff. I mean, but that is just remarkable when you think about it.

3:48Melissa Lee:We were talking, I think, last night about the V reversal that we had a year ago, right? The S &P dropped 25. It's one thing for a stock to drop 25 percent and then rally back. So some of the behavior we're seeing, I mean, to think about a company like this and the results that they have and the stock moving around hundreds of billions of dollars in that sort of period. And here's another thing. When you look at the fateful eight, you know, this was a defensive trade. A lot of folks thought that they're going to come right back to this. And you hear this all the time. If this was just kind of this little pause in a secular bull market and you never have the same leadership as you had the prior time, I think this new market structure, it's really impossible for that not to be the case.

4:27Melissa Lee:So I just think you're seeing money pile in here as we get back towards the prior highs. I do believe, though, the market is just on a risk on risk off basis with the war. It's obvious. And just to use Dan's micron example, there was no way I thought it was going to get back to these levels again. And the fact that it got here so quickly is shocking, which makes me want to fade it again. So I think you're going to get a honeymoon stage where they pile back into large cap tech and then pile back into quantum and pile back into risk assets. But I do believe you should be prudent and make some sales.

5:02Tim Seymour:I mean, I think that if you ask anybody at the beginning of the war, will we be back to January highs this quickly? With the conflict still going on, with an oil shock still going on, most people would say no, absolutely not. I would have said no shot. The whole thing is shocking, not just technology. No way.

5:18Melissa Lee:And we talked about it last night. I obviously would have been wrong. That's par for the course. And again, Tim's been, he has not wavered on the semi-trade. And then you look at the SMH, he's right to have not wavered. I guess if there's a risk out there in the semis, If there is a risk, it comes in a form potentially of the president's trip to China, I guess, a month or so from now. And you wonder that, you know, if Taiwan becomes some sort of bargaining chip that's out there and if something happens between China and Taiwan, I wouldn't take that off the table. I don't think there's a greater than 50 percent chance, but there is a chance that that happens.

5:50Melissa Lee:Short of that, it looks like all systems go here. I will say quickly, I think the software trade might be back in play. Michael Burry put out a piece. I think Dan was talking about it. Microsoft in a couple weeks, as important a quarter as they've had. And I think so much discounted now in terms of the bad news. Anything in line is slightly better. And I think the IGV goes up significantly from here. Yeah, and so guys referring to, and I don't know if we talked about it yesterday, but Michael Burry put on Cassandra Unchained. I think that's his sub stack. Guy, you have a sub stack, don't you? Yeah, I have a few.

6:19Melissa Lee:You got an ointment for that? Everyone's got the sub stack. Well, you know, you go to the CVS. Whoa. So he was talking about the reflexivity between equity and software and the debt. And I think a lot of folks were obviously focused on Oracle. And when we saw the five-year CDS just blowing out, getting back towards financial crisis levels, the stock was at its lows. The stock has had a great couple of days. It's still, I mean, if you just look at the thing, it still looks like it's down and out. And so I think to Guy's point, you have this big rally off the lows. Well, it gave up a lot of that today.

6:48Melissa Lee:I see a lot of the red in that sector here. So, you know, it doesn't have to be that semis and the Mazdaq continue to make these kind of highs or levels and software has to participate. That's what we've had over the last few months. We didn't need software to participate for the market to trade well. I think the biggest tailwind for the market is the oil coming off the highs. And I think that's why you might get an extended rally. But I think that's the that's the reason why the market is so frenzied about the highs right now and jumping back into risk assets.

7:19Tim Seymour:We're one headline away from oil going back up. And even if the war ends tomorrow, there are a lot of disruptions. The straightforward moves is not going to be the same the way it was before in terms of allowing ships transit. It's just not good. It's going to take a long time for that to get back to the way it was, if it ever gets back to the way it was. And our friends in Europe have a different plan for how you're going to monitor that. And I do think that there is a price to be paid, not just literally, but the follow through on higher oil prices. Having said that, again, you talk about what the market needed to see, and it wasn't just Iran.

7:50We had a PPI that said wholesale prices, even with war data, were benign, in fact, if not better. So just reiterating that for markets that now look, this is a V-shape. This is more V than April. In other words, this is almost a symmetrical V, and it's extraordinary. And you had credit help out. You had comments from BlackRock. You had Blue Owl raising some fresh money. I mean, you had all the ingredients on top of the fact that you've got oil there. And now we're in earnings season. And so the cool thing about this is companies, if the street which didn't waver on their EPS targets. I mean, if you actually are getting what they said you're going to get, I think markets are positioned to move higher.

8:33Tim Seymour:That's a terrible setup, though. It's a terrible set to be V, be back at the top of the V ahead of earnings season. Where's sentiment here? I mean, I just turned on a dime. This is a negative V. It's a negative V. I don't know what that means.

8:48Melissa Lee:The one thing I'll say is, look what's happened also in the last week, right? So you've had tensions come down. You've had a VIX go into the teens. It probably feels like it's going to be a mid-teenager really soon. You've had yields come in. You've had the dollar come in. I'm not bullish. I agree with you. I think it's a bad setup. But I think to Tim's point, if you can look by the war and some of the disruptions, and you can call it kind of transitory, then there's a lot of things going in the stock market's favor. Nothing more. I mean, to me, like the sentiment shakeout, I think, was really important.

9:14Melissa Lee:So you have a lot of tailwinds right now if you could just X out all the impacts of the war. You can make an argument that the VIX at 18 and a quarter were ever closed today. Whatever hedges that were in place with a VIX in the mid-20s have either elapsed or been taken off or people just basically threw in the towel. So VIX here, this VIX is lower than when the war started, significantly lower than where the war started, which is amazing. Now people will say, you know what, going into earnings season, I think EPS growth for this year is somewhere between 18 and 19 percent. which, again, is extraordinary, maybe on the back of productivity.

9:47Melissa Lee:We shall see. But that's in the market now. So any hiccup, I think, to your point, and the VIX at 18 and a quarter, I think, it should not stay here for long.

9:55Tim Seymour:So back when the conflict started, there was a thinking, a narrative, that investors sort of held in there in the S &P 500 because they were afraid that they would miss out on that V bottom. Did we just witness the V bottom in anticipation of the worst being behind us? I don't know if you can say that. You're on the second round of talks. so you can't say it's behind us. We have to actually see a conclusion, but the markets always look through and ahead. So was that it? I don't think it's a W. I mean, let's get our alpha back. I mean, it's not a W. So we've seen the worst of the conflict, the worst levels.

10:31I don't know, but I can tell you that at least the market digesting where we are right now with the dynamics of oil at$100 or$120, this is what the market looked at. And it quickly took big cap tech down to a inline multiple with the rest of the market, which it hasn't done in years. I mean, you had an opportunity. I'm not saying that that I got it right. I'm not saying that people at home should have gotten it right. But if you look at at least where we are now back to, you had a chance to look at the biggest, highest quality companies in the world. And they they they traded down to inline multiple with the S &P, which came in as well.

11:07So there's a lot of bad news that still could be out there. But I continue to think that the upward kind of bottom-up call on companies and earnings will be very interesting for the rest of this earnings season. You have tax cuts that are taking hold right now. There's a little more money in people's pockets that are compensating for the rise in costs that are around them. You also have midterm elections that are coming up. So there's got to be something on the easing front for the voter, I would think, out of the administration. If we get a true end to the war and to the conflict and the straight opens up, then I think the market really rips higher.

11:44All right.

11:44Tim Seymour:Despite this week's bounce, the software ETF IGV is down nearly 25 percent this year amid growing concerns over the impact of AI. Our next guest says 80 percent of VC funding in Q1 went to AI. Let's bring in notable capitals. Jeff Richards, notable, is an investor in Anthropic. Jeff, great to have you with us. Great to be with you. It's a perfect perspective because this afternoon we saw a headline from the information saying that Claude is releasing an AI website design tool that promptly took down the likes of Adobe and Figma, which had already been down on the fear of AI disruption. So the software rally is only as safe as, you know, as the next AI headline, basically.

12:24Tim Seymour:What do you make of where we are in terms of processing what the disruption will be? Well, it's obviously been a wild six months. If you wind back the clock six months ago, we were worried about opening eyes financing and the risk to Oracle and companies like that or the hyperscalers spending too much money. I think what you saw with the latest version of Claude in Q1 is a pretty magical product. And people are consuming it at a record pace. You've seen the derivative of that in private markets with companies like Vercel and Foul and Databricks and others that are experiencing record growth. Their growth actually went up in Q1.

12:58They were growing at a very fast clip in 2025, and it went up this year. So we're still early in the days of what all the impacts are going to be. And obviously, a ton of speculation every time a new announcement comes out as to how that affects an industry. I think, you know, we're very long-term investors. We're obviously very bullish on companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. But the reality is the big software companies, you know, particularly in places like cybersecurity, like CrowdStrike and Palo Alto, I think have very durable positions. Vertical software looks pretty durable. But people are going to speculate there's going to be a lot of volatility until those companies come out with announcements about new products and new innovation on their end that lead you to believe they've got a bright future.

13:38Melissa Lee:Hey, Jeff, you know, a name like Adobe and you just highlighted the fact that, you know, Anthropic is just announced a new tool. It's all over them. And, you know, this company guided about a month ago to like 10 percent earnings and sales growth for the rest of the year. And when you look at this, it's an 89 percent gross margin company. You've been around investing in a lot of different cycles in tech. I'm sure you'd say this is probably the most disruptive you've ever seen, but there has to be some unusual values that have just kind of baby with the bathwater a little bit. Is that kind of what you're thinking?

14:07Melissa Lee:Are you seeing that at all? Well, one of the biggest disruptions to companies like Adobe and seat-based companies like Salesforce and others is a lot of what's happening with AI is it's being consoled on a consumption model. So one of the things we like to focus on and ask ourselves as we're making an investment is, is this company in the token path? I.e., as the models get better, does their business model and does their product suite get better? And I think one of the challenges for the legacy software companies is they aren't really in that token path. They're tied to a path that was tied to seats or an annual subscription.

14:36And what you're seeing now is the fastest growing companies in the private markets are all growing as token consumption goes up. And if we think about where token consumption is in, say, your average Fortune 500 company, it's just getting started. So the reason to believe in a company like Adobe or Salesforce or others will be when they come out with products that have pricing models that are tied to that token path. But until then, it's going to be a challenge. So many of these private companies are growing quickly because they're in the cloud infrastructure space and they are a derivative of what Anthropic and OpenAI are doing.

15:09As people consume more tokens, they drive more revenue. And I just don't think you see that with a lot of the legacy software companies. You do see it with the hyperscalers. Clearly, Azure, GCP, AWS, they benefit in a big way as more tokens get consumed and more infrastructure gets consumed. But for legacy software, it's still up in the air.

15:28Melissa Lee:So, JR, for the publicly traded software companies, has this move since October been rational or irrational in your opinion? I don't think it's irrational. I think the fear, there's probably some of that is built on the fear of what's going on with geopolitics and just general uncertainty. But as a lot of your guests have talked about today, the economy looks strong. UBS forecast for earnings in Q1 of 17 percent would be the highest in five years. So from our vantage point, and we do have companies in the consumer sector. We have a company called Quince, which is the fastest growing e-commerce business.

15:58They've had record quarters for the last 18 months. So we see a lot of underlying strength, obviously a lot of uncertainty at a global level. And then you just have this, you know, every time Anthropic or OpenAI comes out with a new product, it calls into question some of the durability of the legacy software companies. And one data point, Guy, I'll share with you is if you take the IGV, the total net new revenue of the IVG composite companies last year was about$60 billion. About half of that went to Microsoft. If you just take the top five to 10 private AI companies, so that's OpenAI, it's Anthropic, it's Databricks, it's ForSell, it's a few others, they will probably add$60 plus billion of revenue this year.

16:39So the IT spend market is increasing. The size of the market, the TAM is getting bigger. Companies are spending more money on things like cybersecurity and AI. But the net new spend is going to companies that are still private. And obviously, hopefully, some of those companies will go public at some point.

16:54Tim Seymour:Jeff, great to see you. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Jeff Richards of Notable Capital. What do you make of the malaise in the software sector? Well, again, it was interesting to listen to JR talk about that. I think there really could be a fair amount of pain and that at the same time, there's no question about the growth that some of these companies are seeing. There's also no question, though, I would just get back to the names that really there's no question the demand they're seeing. And I would go back to a Taiwan semi. I would go back to an ASML. I would go back to infrastructure plays within the AI tech space.

17:29That spend on IT is fascinating. J.P. Morgan, talking about how cyber, those threats, those risks, J.P. Morgan is making a lot of money. They will be. Does that mean a crowd strikes in a better position or worse? We don't know.

17:43Melissa Lee:Yeah, I think one of the most important points that Jeff just made is that the Fortune 500, they're just getting started, right? So when you think about that, and he just kind of gave that stat about the companies in the private market that are growing sales as fast as they are on a relative basis to the names in the IGV. And then it goes back to that consumption model because this is also a story about CPUs. It's one of the reasons why Intel has had this move because consumption, a lot of it's going to be in inference, right? And so it's kind of all coming together. I just think it's all coming together kind of quickly here.

18:12Melissa Lee:So to me, it feels a little dangerous at this point.

18:15Tim Seymour:We've got a news alert we want to get to on an AI partnership between Meta and Broadcom. Mackenzie Cigales has got the details. Hey, Matt. Hey, Mel. Broadcom shares bouncing after hours up nearly 4 % after Meta announced it's extending its partnership with the chip maker on its next generation of AI chips. Meta announced it would be debuting four new custom silicon options last month. And now we know that Broadcom will be their manufacturing partner in it as part of this announcement. Broadcom CEO Hawk Tan will transition off of Meta's board of directors, moving into more of an advisory role for the company, where he'll be giving guidance on Meta's in-house AI chip roadmap.

Read the full transcript

18:51Mel?

18:52Tim Seymour:Mac, thanks. Mackenzie Cigalos. And, Tim, this goes to your semiconductors, and they win in this trade. They win. And maybe even the ones that don't have the brand name high-margin chips out there, the ones that eventually we're going to get to. Either folks want to do it in-house, but they want to partner, they want to white-label it. that's been the more dominant trend over the last three months. And this is why Broadcom is really in that unique spot where they're doing the custom chip development. And most of the hyperscalers want something that's really specific to them. And it does the workaround for NVIDIA.

19:25This has been a story that probably took really long for the investment community to understand. And now they're starting to get it.

19:31Melissa Lee:Look at the downstream plays. And I think you've brought this name up. Look at Bloom Energy today. What that stock did, I think, was on the back of an Oracle announcement. But But, you know, all these sort of tangential energy plays are off to the races. So I think that Tim and Steve's point, it means the trade is probably still alive and well. Yeah, I want to be clear here. I mean, like we sound kind of bullish and some of us have been less bullish than the others here. And that's not my view right now. I mean, I think it's a hard place when you see piling in. You go from a really negative sentiment to a really positive sentiment.

19:58Melissa Lee:There's been great stories in this whole market over the last three years or so. And we're going to kind of anniversary that three year of that first NVIDIA blowout quarter. Remember, it was May of 2023. And it's just crazy to think that here's where we are this, I guess, long into this kind of early stage of this cycle. It just hasn't been much of a digestion phase across the whole NASDAQ. We know that a lot of the MAG-7 corrected. Maybe that's it. I just have a hard time getting too bullish right here on these names.

20:27Tim Seymour:Coming up, a potential mega merger in the skies. What a United American deal would mean for the space and the antitrust hurdles they would have to clear before takeoff. Plus, quantum stocks taking a leap as a group brings in World Quantum Day. I know you have a few big cupcakes out there. You all want to miss the celebration. If you don't go anywhere, Fast Money is back in two.

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21:22My community gives me the confidence to ask myself, what would you like the power to do? So every time I'm on the pitch, I play for more than myself. Oh, what a tackle from Naomi Gurma. Absolutely brilliant. Bank of America champions U.S. Women's National Team member Naomi Gurma and everyone who dares to ask, what would you like the power to do? Bank of America, proud to be the official bank of U.S. soccer. Bank of America and a member FDSE. On any journey using Uber, it helps to know you're getting into the right car. Pin verification adds an extra step to make sure your ride is your ride. Before the trip begins, your app gives you a unique pin.

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22:22Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. Shares of United and American Airlines taking flight today. United CEO Scott Kirby reportedly pitching a takeover of the rival carrier during a recent meeting with President Trump. Our Phil LeBeau has more on this. Phil? Melissa, so far what we have today are these reports that came out late yesterday about Scott Kirby talking with President Trump, saying, what about a possible merger with American Airlines? With that said, let's be clear. We have talked to a number of people today at both United, American and in the industry. there are no direct talks going on right now between United Airlines and American Airlines.

23:00That might change at some point, but at this point, nothing formal has been presented. There hasn't even been an overture to American Airlines or board members there. Neither airline is commenting at this point, and there are plenty of hurdles out there. A number of stories today talking about the fact that when you look at the market share between American, American, which is the largest in the United States of all the airlines, and United, which is number three, combined, they would have 40 % market share, essentially 40 % market share, more than double in terms of size relative to Delta Airlines.

23:34So what would be some of the philosophy here that Scott Kirby might be looking at, might be saying, why does this make sense? Take a look at their market caps. He could make a pretty convincing pitch likely to shareholders of American Airlines saying, look, our market cap is four times greater than yours. Our returns are much better than yours. We can do a better job running American Airlines as part of United Airlines than if you continue to be just investors in American. Don't know that is exactly what he's thinking, but that could be one argument that he's going to potentially make if this becomes a formal proposal.

24:08Take a look at the airline stocks today. Alaska, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, they were all up today. Keep in mind, oil went down, so there was probably some short covering that was going on as well, which also added to the momentum behind the airline stocks. And finally, Melissa, I think this is the most interesting chart of all. I'm going back to September of 2016. Why are we doing that and why are we showing you United versus American since then? September of 2016 is when Scott Kirby left American Airlines, where he was president of American Airlines. But it was clear he was not going to become CEO.

24:42And he went to United. And Oscar Munoz said, come on in here. You're going to help us run this airline for a while. And eventually, you'll likely be CEO. And that happened, I think, three or four years later. No comparison in terms of performance between the two airlines since Scott Kirby went to United Airlines from American Airlines. So there's that. That's where we are, Melissa. This is this feels like one of those stories that's going to kind of it's going to linger. It's going to hang out there for a while.

25:09Tim Seymour:Well, it's interesting. You know, the reports indicate that he made this pitch to President Trump. And the implication is that because we haven't heard about this until now and there was no proposed merger, that Trump said no, which would also imply that President Trump has an actual say in this. But this meeting happened just a few days before the Iran war and the bombing started. So you could also make the argument the president and his administration have been clearly much more focused on that than they have been on considering an airline merger. And let's also be clear here, without a formal proposal, it's not unlikely that the president said, OK, that's interesting.

25:51I don't know that for sure. He might have just said, well, yeah. But remember, we talked to the transportation secretary just last week, and he said, we're open to the idea of a merger within the airlines, even large airlines here in the United States. Has to be the right deal, has to be structured with what we think will work, but they are open to it. Yep.

26:10Tim Seymour:Phil, thanks. Phil LeBeau. You bet. Bob Isom is 62 years old. The stock is lower than when he took over in 2022. So compared to the others, it is an underperformer. performer. It's a big underperformer, but its balance sheet has been a big issue. And I think the efficiency and how they run is another thing. I mean, you can't argue with the efficiency gains that you've seen at United, those you've seen at Delta. And I think that's what's interesting for airlines in a day like today. And I think I mentioned that airlines couldn't outperform when I thought everything was moving for them right before the war.

26:45Now they've proven they can actually hold demand in higher prices. They could probably hold these prices higher. They cut capacity by two points. They're probably going to have as good of razzm. That's right. I said that, Melissa. That's revenue per available seat mile as they've had in a long time. I think airlines are going to continue to rally here. And it's strange that it took real headwinds for them for the market to see it. Well, I think airlines are going to rally because if you do have that end of the war and oil stays where it is, that's a natural tailwind. But this backstory, this seems personal to me.

27:19Does it not to you? I mean, this is he was showing the door. He didn't quit. He was showing the door. And now he's coming back full circle. I think this one could go higher.

27:28Melissa Lee:American, I think you're talking. I mean, let's pull up the chart. I mean, Phil is talking about it, but it's gone nowhere for, I think, the better part of eight years now. It's pretty remarkable. And I would say this. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's just my thought. I mean, Delta's done extraordinarily well. United's within, I don't know, 8 % of its all-time high. Airline mergers historically haven't worked out all that well. So I don't think this is necessarily it might be bullish for American on the margins. I don't think it's great for United. They usually happen in times of duress, Tim, like when things are not good in the industry.

28:00I think they've certainly happened during periods where individually I don't think that there have been. I mean, we're talking about back 15, 20 years ago. There was a lot of consolidation, but most of the consolidation has been have been forced dynamics of one going bankrupt and somebody stepping in and assuming the debt.

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30:04Tim Seymour:Learn more on the Uber app. Welcome back to Fast Money. A very special holiday in the tech world today. Did you know about this? No. World Quantum Day. An international event promoting public awareness and understanding of quantum science and technology. Why today? Well, April 14th is a reference to 4.14, the rounded first digits of Planck's Constant. Obviously, we all know that, which is of foundational importance in the quantum world. Stocks in the quantum sector all rallying today in celebration. INQ, D-Wave and more seeing outsized gains. And so, Steve, how are you celebrating this very special day?

30:45So I do own IONQ and I do own inflection. And all of them have different strategies. I don't think you have to focus on it because it's really deep in the woods. You can go down a rabbit hole on this. But what I think you have to do is look at these through the prism of this is what AI was back in 2018. And then in 2022, chat GPT came on the scene. So I think we're at the moment where we're close to the chat GPT moment for quantum. maybe a couple of years out. But I think the market is going to price these things in a lot sooner than we would think. So I think you have to be along some of them, not a lot, but some of them.

31:22And if you want to play it with IBM, the original on AI, the original on quantum, you could do it that way or you could do it this way. I chose to do it the riskier, deeper end of the pool.

31:33Tim Seymour:Are you celebrating World Quantum Day? Who is it? Where's your pocket protector?

31:36Melissa Lee:Pardon me? Your pocket protector. It doesn't even have a pocket. I mean, I left it. By the way, it's Plank, as you know, with a C and a K, as opposed to Doug Plank and Gary Fensick, who both used to watch the show. Or your favorite yoga position. Gary Fensick. The Plank. Chicago Bear. Now, let me say this quickly. I'm with Steve on the IBM front. It's traded off significantly since it's all-time high. That you get at least IBM core and you get the quantum sort of tail. So IBM is the way to play it.

32:02Tim Seymour:All right. In the meantime, we do want to point out Bitcoin crossing the 76 ,000 level at its highest today, highest since early February. Crypto-related names, Robinhood, Coinbase, Riot, Strategy also getting a lift as investors seem to embrace a risk on sentiment. Is this just for now? No, I don't think so. I think as someone that has not been a card-carrying hodler a lot of my career, I think Bitcoin is going back to all-time highs. I don't know when. I think Coinbase, and I believe the platform. I mean base, and I also mean just other elements of the platform, is going to ride with that at some point.

32:36I'm long Coinbase. I think Robinhood, which I'm not long, is very interesting in terms of their demographic and in terms of the growth and the asset base of the folks that don't have as many assets that they can grow into. So I think you're selectively buying a few of these and you can still buy them. They haven't moved so much.

32:54Melissa Lee:Yeah. Robinhood, I think it was Bernstein that was out this morning, they're saying it was like an asymmetric setup, like to the upside. And, you know, they're looking at, you know, growth of event contracts. You know, options has obviously been a big thing. And then the growth again, if it comes back, if Tim's saying it's going to all-time highs, that would be the big point. At some point. Yeah, no, I mean, of course. You know, that's what they're focused on. And those have been big drivers. Throw in the event contract stuff. It's probably hard to quantify. I think they were saying trillion-dollar market by 2030.

33:23Tim Seymour:Coming up, what a top bank analyst makes of this morning's results. And a warning flag from J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon. The increasingly complex economic risks he's worried about when Fast Money returns.

33:41Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money Stocks, keeping yesterday's momentum as investors await developments out of the Middle East and the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The Dow jumping more than 300 points, the S &P climbing to within a half a percent of an intraday record. And the Nasdaq leading today's charge up nearly 2 percent, notching a tenth straight day of gains, its longest streak since November of 2021. Shares of Novo Nord is climbing three and a half percent today, the pharma company partnering with OpenAI to bring artificial intelligence to the drug discovery space. Novo saying the partnership will help analyze complex data sets, identify promising new drugs, and reduce the time it takes for a medicine to move from research to patient use.

34:19Tim Seymour:Shares still down nearly 23 % this year. And Amazon buying satellite telecommunications company Globalstar for about$11.6 billion. It's a move to build out its satellite internet business as advised to compete with SpaceX. Amazon also agreeing with Apple to provide satellite connectivity for current and future iPhones and watches. And Nike, jumping after hours after an SEC filing, showed CEO Elliot Hill and Apple CEO Tim Cook, a member of Nike's board, bought shares of the company. So insider buying, Tim. I actually bought some Nike shares today, and not because I think there's anything that great going on, but it's partially averaging down.

34:57But I want to apologize for them. I think I said something kind of offensive about Guy and a pocket protector in the last block. So, Guy, I'm sorry about that. Why is that offensive? Say it to the audience. But what is wrong with a pocket protector?

35:07Tim Seymour:You have a pen. You don't want it to leak into your shirt. It's a sign of being extra geeky.

35:10Melissa Lee:Nobody has pockets anymore. He was saying that was like a poindex. Remember, like, in the Van Halen video, Hot for Teacher? That's what he was saying, stuff like that. There's nothing wrong with that either. I was a geek growing up. I'm still a geek. Me too. I'm fine with it.

35:26Tim Seymour:Hot for Teacher video. Anyway. Interesting. Let's move on, shall we? BlackRock and Citigroup rallying after reporting earnings that beat street estimates this morning. Citishares hitting their highest level since 2008, but J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo shares closed lower. J.P. Morgan topping expectations, but CEO Jamie Dimon flagged increasingly complex economic risks. Let's bring in Gerard Cassidy, Global Financials Research co-head at RBC Capital Markets. Gerard, great to see you.

35:52Melissa Lee:Thank you, Melissa. Great to see you.

35:54Tim Seymour:Was this just typical Jamie Dimon being conservative?

35:57Melissa Lee:I think it was, Melissa, because he oftentimes gives us a more conservative view of the global outlook. Of course, we all know about the geopolitical risks in the Middle East right now. And that's very understandable for him to say that. But I think when you get down to their numbers, J.P. Morgan's numbers were quite strong in the quarter, as were some of the other banks who reported today as well.

36:20Tim Seymour:Yeah, Citi seemed like the real standout here. I mean, Jane Frazier, I mean, just a stellar quarter in terms of what she has done and what they're still left to do. How much is there left in the stock run?

36:33Melissa Lee:It's a really good question, Melissa, because it was a really landmark quarter for the city. They had record quarterly revenues. Their markets business, I believe, you know, at over seven billion dollars in revenue, it was the best quarter ever. So there's been a number of things that went right for them, deservedly so. But to your point, Jane Frazier has done a very good job in turning this company around. And there's still room to run. Of course, the big divestiture that's still to come is the Mexican business. But now after that, it's going to be all about growth. And obviously, they'll be focused on that on their investor day, which is in early May.

37:14Hey, it's Tim. And so I guess we don't want to hear Citi talking about buying regional banks and some of the things that were out there. I don't know if you have any views on that. But I actually, Jared, I prefer to ask you about re-rating for the sector. I know we've re-rated, but to me, it's all about at least what multiple you're paying, paying on price to tangible book at this point, less about P.E. And I don't know why banks shouldn't be trading two times the multiple. And I mean, you know, so in other words, if the average price to book was one and a half three years ago for the entire money center bank group, why shouldn't they be trading closer to three?

37:48I mean, they're more profitable. They've never been run better. AI is going to make them leaner and meaner. Sorry, it's a long question. And I'm leading the witness.

37:55Melissa Lee:I know that that's fine. I think you're onto something, Tim. I'm with you. The structural profitability for the group is better. And the one area that I think, which you didn't mention, which is just as important, is the regulatory change. And therefore, because of the lower capital requirements many of the banks will have, not so much J.P. Morgan, as Jamie Dimon pointed out on the call today, but most of the banks are expecting to see lower capital levels, which means structurally you'll see higher probability. You tie in what you said about AI and the benefits of that, you're certainly going to see, I think, an improvement in valuations.

38:35Melissa Lee:But we have to remember, these are cyclical stocks. These stocks do get hit hard in a recession because of credit. But right now, I'm with you. I think there could be some more further expansion in valuations because of the increased probability. Gerard's got ESPN because I was going to ask him if banks are still slick cyclical. And you just said that they were. Where are they in the cycle, in your opinion? Yeah, Guy, it is the question. And I would say that we're probably using the baseball vernacular. We're probably in the middle innings right now. And it's really going to come down to what happens to the U.S.

39:12Melissa Lee:economy based upon this conflict in the Middle East. And if we can get through this conflict without too much damage to inflation, meaning inflation moving much higher, then I think you're going to see the strength of the U.S. economy shine in the second half, driven by the data center build out in this country, as you guys know how strong that is. And that leads into a stronger 2027. So I would say we're in middle innings right now, Guy.

39:39Tim Seymour:Gerard, great to see you. Thank you.

39:42Melissa Lee:Thank you, everyone.

39:43Tim Seymour:Gerard Cassidy of RBC. What are you thinking of banks, Steve? Yeah, so the obvious is J.P. Morgan best in class. Bank of America probably best risk. Wells Fargo still is a turnaround story, which is still unbelievable. Everyone's sort of behind Citi. A guy's been right to be behind Citi. But if you look at long-term charts on these, all of them had made new all-time highs. Citi is the only one. Bank of America is right around that level. But Citi is still off dramatically. And I mean, by 80 percent, because they diluted the reverse split. It's apples and oranges. I mean, the stock was blown up.

40:19That's the point. I'm saying that all the rest really have performed. And now it's a near term performance. And how long can Citi do that?

40:26Melissa Lee:I have such a problem with and Gerard wasn't making the strong case, but that if the economic growth is coming from the data center build and we know that that's kind of like pushing out a lot of the consumer growth. Right. So if data center builds are pushing up cost of energy. Right. Which it is happening. And it's just like these guys can't build these things fast enough. They are energy constrained. And then you think about a consumer that, OK, this is also leading to unemployment. Right. So there's lots of pressures going on, not to mention what's going on with the straighter her moves. And, you know, there's going to be disruption for a while here.

40:59Melissa Lee:So I think at some point that's kind of a double edged sword, the growth that we're getting from data centers. All right.

41:04Tim Seymour:And we should note, Leslie Picker has a big interview tomorrow with the Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan after its results cross the wires. That is tomorrow. Squawk on the street, 10, 15 a.m. Eastern time. Coming up, Wall Street kicking the tires on some automakers, the names they see speeding ahead and whether the stocks can accelerate after a rough run so far this year. Fast Money's back in two.

41:29Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. Auto stocks revving up after a few bullish notes this morning. Deutsche Bank upgrading GM to buy after its recent pullback, saying it's on the cusp of a multi-year re-rating. UBS, meantime, upping Ford to buy and Tesla to a neutral. So what do we make of these moves? You like GM. I love GM. I've loved GM for a long time. And I think the market, again, is just starting to appreciate it took kind of putting the EV business into the rearview mirror and a reality about whether that was ever going to be profitable or not, to understand that their internal combustion engine business or hybrids are interesting, but that the companies have never been run better.

42:07It's extremely cheap. It's endured a lot of bad macro. Obviously, tariffs weren't good a year ago. Yeah, and I think obviously they sell the biggest selling cars are the SUVs and the pickup trucks. So if you look at Ford, I would go first for GM. Second would be Ford. And I do still own Tesla, very small. But Tesla is not a car company anymore to me. It's robotics. It's autonomous. There's a whole bunch of other things that are thrown in there. But I do like both GM and Ford.

42:35Tim Seymour:We don't really talk Tesla that much anymore. No, we don't. Interesting, huh? I'm okay with that.

42:40Melissa Lee:Yeah. And you know what else we don't talk about all that much? Toyota Motors. That comes out TM, Melissa Lee. And you want a good-looking chart. Look at a 40-year chart of Toyota Motors. 40?

42:51Melissa Lee:Did I stutter? Did I? Yes. 40. It's a very big deal. 40-year chart. Who breaks out of stock? Don't tell me to look at a 40-year chart, matter of fact. What is a figginy doing back there? Please do it as a log chart, though. 20, we can go. Lower, lower, upper, right. I mean, it's just pulled back off. It's all-time high. Is there a 40-year chart? I'm sorry.

43:12Tim Seymour:I have to pull out an almanac or something. I like a good almanac. I thought I might have heard you wrong. No, you heard me right. Coming up. Shares of Netflix hitting the highest levels of the year, where traders see in store with earnings just two days away, and why Wall Street is tuning in. More Fast Money in Tune.

43:36Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. Netflix shares jumping almost 3 % today after Moffitt, Nathanson, and KeyBank both raised their price targets on the streaming giant. The stock is now trading at its highs of the year and has gained more than 28 % since dropping out of the bidding war against Paramount, Skydance, or Warner Brothers. Netflix reports Q1 earnings Thursday after the bell. Certainly a lot of questions, I'm sure, about its pricing tier. Also, whether or not the price increases that we've all seen on our Netflix bills, if that was incorporated in guidance that they gave.

44:05Melissa Lee:Never thought Netflix was going down to 70, wherever it got down to. So that was wrong. But I did think once this whole Paramount Warner Brothers thing got sorted out, Netflix would rally. That's seemingly right. They report this Thursday. I think you've got to be long to name into the print and after the print. I think they're going to surprise people. And I don't think valuation is awful here for Netflix. So I like the name at these levels.

44:27Tim Seymour:Do you think they talk about an M &A strategy or do you think they say, no, we're going to use that money and reinvest? And what do you like better as a shareholder? I think they're going to talk about outlook in terms of content and things that will be drivers, like special events, like possibly sports, some of these live type streaming events. And also just the difference in the tiers and how profitable the pay for tier is. So I think the valuation is still your biggest enemy here. But the chart is your friend. Let's get back up through this 200-day, and then I think she can run. Yeah, they should never utter the words M &A, this year at least.

45:03That was the reason. That was the death nail for them. They have to really push behind doing what their bread and butter was. But if you look at Disney, if you look at everything, they own the space. Disney had a second round of layoffs or the first round for the new CEO. I do like the chart on Roku. Sort of a different angle to this, but Netflix is still the king of content.

45:23Melissa Lee:I would not be long this thing. I just feel like that they were having problems at a whole host of different like kind of, you know, metrics before they made that bid for Warner. And when you think about why did they make that bid for Warner to begin with, they're not giving a subscriber growth. I know there's a lot of stuff that people want to hear. You guys just mentioned the tears and advertising and all that sort of stuff. I just think it's kind of run pretty far without a whole heck of a lot of clarity about why it started to sell off last summer.

45:49Tim Seymour:Up next, final trades.

46:04Tim Seymour:Time for the final trade, Tim. Yeah, if you look at a 50-year chart of Citibank, you're a buyer. So am I. Steve. Inflection. They are on NVIDIA's quantum stack and NVIDIA's a paying customer. Inflection.

46:18Melissa Lee:Dan. Yeah, Intel's 50 % rally over the last month. It's gotten it back to its 30-year highs, if you want to check out the chart there. I'm not buying into this thing, into earnings. You've got TerraFab. You've got IslandFab. It's like discounting, all that stuff. Guy. I just put a 40-year chart of the Toyota Motors on the Twitter if you want to see it, Tim. Everybody does. So Toyota Motors, I've got to go. Dance with the girl you brought to the prom.

46:41Tim Seymour:Did you have to take a picture of like a parchment chart?

46:44Melissa Lee:A parchment, yeah. Microfiche.

46:46Tim Seymour:That money starts now. All opinions expressed by the Fast Money participants are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC or its parent company or affiliates and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet, or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed on this podcast as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of an opinion. Such opinions are based upon information the Fast Money participants consider reliable, but neither CNBC nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such.

47:15To view the full Fast Money Disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com forward slash Fast Money Disclaimer. I want to grow the game so every kid can fall in love with soccer like I did. So I asked myself, what would you like the power to do? My answers inspired me to invent a pop-up soccer goal that can turn any basketball court into a street soccer pitch. Bank of America champion street soccer advocate Kyle Martino and everyone who dares to ask, what would you like the power to do? Bank of America, proud to be the official bank of U.S. soccer and FIFA World Cup 2026. Bank of America N.A. Member FDSE.

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Nvidia and the rest of the Mag7 stocks helping fuel a big tech bounce, with software, semis, and nearly every part of the tech trade in the green. What the Fast Money traders make of the action, and if the good times can continue. Plus Why one bank analyst is calling the private credit concerns overblown, a potential mega merger in the airline space, and why JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is warning of increasingly complex economic risks.

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