GM Drives Higher… And Opportunities Overseas As The Dollar Falls 1/27/26

27 Jan 2026 · 44 min · 24 chapters

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In short

Fast Money episode (1/27/26) focuses on: GM’s stock surge after strong earnings and guidance, potential valuation “re-rating” for automakers, and whether the dollar’s near-4-year lows create overseas stock opportunities. It also covers big-tech earnings (Meta, Microsoft, Tesla) and options-implied moves, plus other market movers: UnitedHealth’s sharp drop on weak revenue guidance and Medicare Advantage rate concerns, Texas Instruments’ analog recovery and data-center power chips, and Amazon closing some Amazon Go/Amazon Fresh stores to convert to Whole Foods.

Guests

Phil LeBeau (CNBC correspondent; interviews GM CEO Mary Barra earlier), and David Harrow (Oakmark co-CIO for International Equities; manages Oakmark International ETF).

Key claims

GM is “not the prior GM,” driven by cash generation, buybacks (~35–38% over four years), ICE/production focus, and margin outlook (8–10% adjusted profit margins). Overseas: foreign stocks still trade at a ~25–30% discount vs U.S. P/Es, with undervalued sectors like pharma (Roche/Novartis/AstraZeneca), consumer staples (Danone/Unilever), and luxury (Richemont/Louis Vuitton).

Notable examples

GM buyback/dividend hike; Corning’s $6B fiber-optic order tied to Meta; Bitcoin “make-or-break” support near the cloud model; CoreWeave’s rally after NVIDIA’s $2B investment.

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 Overview and GM’s Performance

0:00 to 0:22

Discussion about stocks ending mixed with a focus on GM's earnings report.

“Mazda has been named Consumer Reports' safest new car brand.”

Market Overview and GM’s Performance

1:45 to 2:34

Discussion about stocks ending mixed with a focus on GM's earnings report.

“On the desk tonight, Karen Feinerman, Dan Nathan, Guy Adami and Katie Stockton, founder and managing partner at Fair Lead Strategies.”

GM's Earnings and Future Outlook

2:34 to 4:38

In-depth analysis of GM's earnings beat, stock buyback, and production plans.

“buyback and a 20 percent hike in its dividend.”

Valuation of GM and Industry Comparisons

4:38 to 6:06

Discussion on GM's valuation compared to Ford and other automakers.

“And yet it doesn't seem to get anything but a cyclical multiple.”

Phil LeBeau Discusses GM's Strategy

6:06 to 7:58

Phil LeBeau shares insights on GM's stock buyback strategy and market conditions.

“Plus, they did have some of that the Tesla magic of Super Cruise and OnStar.”

GM vs. Ford and Market Insights

7:58 to 11:30

Analysis of efficiency between GM and Ford along with market expectations.

“that Tesla hasn't seen any sort of a tailwind because of that?”

Previewing Big Tech Earnings

11:30 to 14:00

Discussion about upcoming earnings reports from big tech companies.

“A nine multiple, I don't think is ridiculous.”

Analyzing Meta's CapEx and Revenue Growth

14:00 to 15:10

Discussion on Meta's capital expenditure and its implications for investors.

“I think there's more room near term to run.”

Options Market Insights for Tech Stocks

15:10 to 16:38

Overview of options market movements for Microsoft, Meta, and Tesla.

“The options market applying some big moves for these names, some major action in Tesla specifically.”

Texas Instruments Earnings Report

16:38 to 19:18

Analysis of Texas Instruments’ earnings and market response.

“I mean, maybe Facebook, you get a little bit of a read through.”
Show all 24 chapters

CoreWeave Price Surge and Market Implications

19:18 to 21:59

Discussion on CoreWeave's price increase following NVIDIA's investment.

“Shares jumping in extended trading despite the chipmaker missing top and bottom line estimates.”

Evaluating CoreWeave's Long-Term Viability

21:59 to 24:42

Insights into CoreWeave’s financial health and market strategies.

“saying the company is in the sweet spot to start booking new business.”

Amazon's Grocery Strategy Shift

24:42 to 27:35

Examination of Amazon's decision to convert stores and its impact on competitors.

“Where is all of that demand for compute going?”

Trends in Grocery Stock Performance

27:35 to 28:00

Discussion on the performance of grocery stocks in light of Amazon's changes.

“Traditional grocery stocks like Sprouts, Kroger and Albertsons all seeing outsized losses.”

Stock Insights on Walmart and Amazon

28:00 to 31:00

Discussion on logistics and valuation comparisons between Walmart and Amazon.

“They just, I mean, the logistics that they are capable of doing.”

International Opportunities Amid Dollar Weakness

31:00 to 33:48

Exploration of how a weakening dollar impacts international investments.

“The names our next guest says are still undervalued when Fast Money returns.”

Evaluating Global Stocks and Valuations

33:48 to 37:24

Analysis of global stocks, with a focus on pharma and luxury goods sectors.

“This is certainly, the dollar weakness, certainly a tailwind to international investing.”

Challenges in Japanese Market Valuations

37:24 to 39:49

Discussion on the valuation of Japanese equities and their performance metrics.

“People don't like to invest in European companies because they see slow growth, bureaucratic, overregulated Europe.”

Emerging Market Opportunities and Trends

39:49 to 41:20

Insights into emerging markets, particularly Brazil and tech sectors in China.

“David Arrow, what do you think about Japan being expensive is interesting.”

UnitedHealth's Market Performance Analysis

41:26 to 42:00

Analysis of UnitedHealth's stock performance and revenue outlook amidst Medicare concerns.

“shares of UnitedHealthcare sinking almost 20 percent, their worst day since last April.”

Market Analysis: UNH and IHF ETF Trends

42:00 to 43:20

Discussion on the current market trends for UNH and IHF ETFs, including support levels and breakdowns.

“So UNH for one was right up against our cloud model.”

Bitcoin's Support Levels and Potential Bounce

43:21 to 44:01

Analyzing Bitcoin's price movement, support levels, and potential for recovery in the upcoming weeks.

“and why she thinks the token could bounce back after a rough couple of months.”

Crypto Market Momentum: Signs of Recovery

44:02 to 45:41

Discussion on the backing and filling trends in the cryptocurrency market and potential rebound signals.

“We've been seeing some backing and filling from the cryptocurrency market more broadly for the past few weeks or even longer than that.”

Final Trade Insights and Predictions

45:42 to 46:04

Sharing final trade ideas, including perspectives on USO and Meta amid earnings reports.

“You need to have this above 95 ,000 over the next couple weeks.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:02Mazda has been named Consumer Reports' safest new car brand. It starts with our approach. Every Mazda comes standard with proactive safety features. So you're more aware of what's around you, more focused on the road ahead, and ready before problems ever start. Mazda. More of what matters most to you. Go to mazdausa.com to learn more. Consumer Reports does not endorse or promote any product. At Edward Jones, we believe rich is more than caring about the latest and greatest. It's also taking care of what gives your life meaning. That's why your dedicated financial advisor meets you where you are with personalized financial strategies that help protect what matters so you can preserve your progress while creating a path forward.

0:51The key to being rich is knowing what counts. Let's find your rich together. Edward Jones, member SIPC.

1:02Tim 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. Shares of GM rev up in their best day since October. The company beating earnings estimates for the 13th quarter in a row. What drove the gains and how much more can the stock accelerate from here? We'll debate that. And going global as the dollar hits nearly four-year lows, are there more opportunities to invest overseas? We'll talk to one top fund manager to find out where he is putting cash to work right now. Plus, unhealthly gains, moving moves, I should say, in shares of UnitedHealth.

1:33Tim Seymour:Someone's seeing buy signals on the Bitcoin charts and Match 7 earnings kick off tomorrow. What to expect from Meta, Microsoft and Tesla when the results cross the wires? I'm Melissa Lee. Coming to you live from Studio B at the NASDAQ. On the desk tonight, Karen Feinerman, Dan Nathan, Guy Adami and Katie Stockton, founder and managing partner at Fair Lead Strategies. Well, stocks ending the day mixed. The S &P had fresh all-time highs and closing in on 7K, the Dow falling over 400 points, largely tied to the drop in UnitedHealth, while the Nasdaq rose almost a percent ahead of big tech earnings kicking off tomorrow.

2:04Tim Seymour:We'll get more on that in just a bit. But we shift gears now, so to speak, to General Motors, surging nearly 9 % to post-bankruptcy highs after beating fourth quarter earnings estimates. Strong 2026 guidance, also boosting shares. The company expecting adjusted profit margins between 8 and 10 % this year. Earlier this month, GM pre-announced a$7.1 billion charge tied to its EV pullback and restructuring in China, even with the write-downs. The company today authorizing a$6 billion share buyback and a 20 percent hike in its dividend. It also expects to increase production to 2 million units a year, a move that would put the company ahead of Ford to become the top assembler of vehicles in the United States.

2:46Tim Seymour:Ford shares still managing to rise close to 4 percent today, while The other big three manufacturers, Stellantis, gained nearly a percent. So has GM's report changed the leaderboard for the automakers? I mean, this is just a staggering one-day move here.

3:00Melissa Lee:I don't think it changes the leaderboard. I think it just reinforces where the leaderboard has been for quite some time. Collectively, I think we've talked about GM for a while. If Tim were here, he would say the same thing. I mean, I think you're in the midst of a revaluation. I think the market is reassessing what the right value is for GM. And they're coming to the conclusion that, hey, wait a second, this is not the prior GM. And Mary Barra, say what you want. She's done an extraordinary job. GM has bought back almost 40 percent of their stock, 38 percent to be exact, over the last four years.

3:26Melissa Lee:They're buying more stock back now. Maybe it takes a pause here, three times normal volume. But, you know, I think the stock continues to ratchet higher from here.

3:33Tim Seymour:Being able to lean into ice and producing more ice as opposed to EVs, that was a huge sort of green light for this sector. Yes. I mean, so there was a lot to love in this. I bid buy some this morning after the earnings came out. I have a small position going in, and I thought this was really great for a number of reasons. Obviously, the numbers looked really good. I think Guy's point is really interesting. They've bought back so much stock. Every buyback has been a good one for a long time. At this rate, I mean, they'll have bought back, you know, more than half the stock within a couple of years.

4:09So I like that about it. You've got to think that, I mean, Silverado, the margins there must have been really, really good. So they're delivering a product that people want. That's really good. I think she's doing an extraordinary job in what has been a really difficult environment. When you think about all the supply chain issues, if you think about the tariffs, they've been able to eat the tariffs in a way that allows them to still be profitable. The thing that's really interesting to me is obviously this is cyclical business. It hasn't been cyclical for the last few years, though. It's been a good cycle.

4:41And yet it doesn't seem to get anything but a cyclical multiple. Right. I mean, now it's in the higher single digits, but still very much in the single.

4:53Melissa Lee:Right. And I guess it never really has. Right. Have these stocks ever traded with like a double digit multiple? I can't remember. They used to. Yeah. Like when they used to make the cars that guy used to. First of all, I'm just saying the big like things, the big caddies that are like 15 feet long. That's muscle cars. We called them. Right. No, you know, I mean, listen, these are not good. If they're being re-evaluated, they're doing it right now. Like if you see, like there's multiple expansion going on. And Ford is a good example where, you know, they're not going to get back to peak earnings for years, at least expectations.

5:23Melissa Lee:You know, one of the things if you think about the pullback from EVs, this was part of the bull story. If you go back a few years ago and like this is great, you know, just do the ice things. You know what I mean? And that's what the people want, giving back the big cars. It is interesting, though, that Tesla has sold off about 13 percent into its report tomorrow, where we've seen a lot of stocks rally into them, at least since the bank earnings. And so to me, the Tesla thing is interesting. You know, they're not talking about deliveries anymore. I mean, they're just not. I mean, a lot of analysts who are previewing this story, they're talking about robots.

5:54Melissa Lee:They're talking about Robitexy, which is a very interesting thing. And so, you know, that is coming down to commentary because we know that there's not going to be a lot of actually hard news there. So, again, I just find that pretty interesting. I like GM. I think, you know, when you see an earnings driven gap higher, it tends to be a positive short term catalyst. So as long as it can hold on to the gains today, tomorrow to confirm that breakout just above about 84, you could arrive at a measured move objective of about 95, after which I would say that consolidation is probably likely given some, I guess, signs of exhaustion that we see on the longer term charts.

6:28Plus, they did have some of that the Tesla magic of Super Cruise and OnStar. And so the margins on that are excellent. Maybe those trade at seven times also, I guess. Not as good as if, you know, Tesla, but that's OK.

6:44Tim Seymour:But do you think that this is a period where we will re-rate these, I guess, as the valuation must move higher? I mean, the one good thing about it not doing that is that GM has been able to buy back 35 percent of GM at a very good price. Right. Let's add to the conversation Phil LeBeau. He spoke with GM CEO Mary Barra earlier today on CNBC. Phil, I know you're listening to our conversation about the valuation of GM and whether it should re-rate. I mean, is this a different business environment for GM? It is different, but not terribly different. I think that what you can attribute GM success over the last year or two is the fact that if you bought shares at General Motors, you could count on a couple of things.

7:29One of them being they were going to be buying more stock. That's been consistent since November of 23. They bought back 35 % of their shares. That's the first thing. The second thing is they're generating a lot of cash. And so the dividend was likely going to move higher. You put that all together. If you're an investor, this is one of the few auto stocks, traditional auto stocks, that you've been able to count on.

7:55Tim Seymour:Are you surprised, Phil, that as Ford and GM are pulling back and winding down their EV business, that Tesla hasn't seen any sort of a tailwind because of that? No, I'm not surprised at all. I don't think Tesla trades at all on its auto business. My feeling is that Tesla, having covered the company from the beginning or virtually the beginning it is trading more than ever on the commentary and the aspirations of the ceo elon musk and he's made it clear this is less about delivering electric vehicles though they will never say well we're not going to manufacture electric vehicles that's still part of the the playbook what their future rests on is autonomous that's robo taxi unsupervised unsupervised full self-driving vehicles as well as robots and the the humanoid robot and the development there that's not happening anytime soon regardless of what elon musk says humanoid robots are not happening anytime soon now that might change in a couple of years but if you are a tesla investor you are hanging on that that's what the stock is trading on so the fact that general motors and ford and other automakers have dialed back on evs in north america i don't think it really matters a ton to Tesla or to the Tesla investor.

9:18Tim Seymour:Barrett was also commenting on auto prices in 2026, that they'll remain virtually flat, and yet the tariff impact is going to be higher. So I assume margins are going to be lower? Well, that would be your assumption. But if you go back and you look at average transaction prices of General Motors and the industry overall, they continue to inch higher. In fact, General Motors Average transaction price last year was about$52 ,000. The industry was at$50 ,000 at the end of last year. It has always sold, as far as transaction prices, at a premium to the rest of the industry in North America. And when I asked Mary Barra about the fact that the administration is pushing more affordability when it comes to new vehicles, she said, look, we sell a lot of vehicles that start for under$40 ,000 or under$35 ,000.

10:09But, Melissa, you and I both know very few people buy a vehicle at the starting price. That is there for marketing, MSRP, and there is a very, very small audience that buys vehicles at that price. We are conditioned, especially here in the United States, we are conditioned to add things to our vehicles. And we want those things added. That moves the price up. And hats off to General Motors. It is giving the consumers what they want. regardless of what the White House says. Phil, it's Karen. It also seems to me like they're just more efficient as well, which is how they were able to eat some of the margins and not raise prices, I guess.

10:52It seems like that's going to continue. Go ahead. No, I was going to say, one of the big differences between General Motors and Ford over the last three, four years, look at the warranty costs. There's no comparison at all. Ford has worked really hard at trying to get their warranty costs under control. And there's indications that it's improving. But over the last three or four years, how many times did we come up on earnings day and we said, here's another charge for Ford because they've got warranty issues. We haven't been saying that about General Motors. It's a far different story, far more efficient operation right now.

11:28Tim Seymour:Phil, thank you. Phil LeBeau in Florida for us. GM or Ford?

11:35Melissa Lee:GM still. And we've been steadfast on this one. And you want to play the multiple game. A nine multiple, I don't think is ridiculous. And at$12 earnings, you get$108 stock. I think that's right. I think the average market price right now, according to Facts, is$87, which is exactly where the stock closed. So you're going to start, in my opinion, you're going to start to see analysts ratchet up their price targets in GM. Which chart looks better, Katie? You know, GM's at new highs, so you always have to favor the one that has the longer-term uptrend in place. All right.

12:04Tim Seymour:Well, meantime, a triple dose of big tech reports tomorrow. Meta, Microsoft, and Tesla all on deck after the bell. Apple rounds out this week's MAG7 action on Thursday. What do you make of the stock's action ahead of these reports? The ramp in, Dan, is not helpful in terms of the setup.

12:19Melissa Lee:Yeah, it's tough. I mean, I think these guys, Karen and Guy, had this last week. They were saying this was before that meta upgrade by Jeffries. It won't take that much good news to get these stocks going, given how weak they were. And so when you think about that Jeffries upgrade, I mean, I don't know about you guys. We don't see a lot of movement generally on upgrades or downgrades by the street anymore. And so that was maybe just a good reminder that some of these stories that are pretty good got oversold. And when you think about that, if the fundamentals are basically in line to better, then the sentiment's so poor, you get a move like that.

12:50Melissa Lee:I think it's a tough one. Apple has also made a move like that kind of sneakily over the last week or so. So, you know, I think it's a tough time to chase things. The market's at all-time highs. And some of these stories, they might be hitting some patches where it's a bit of digestion. And then the ones that have outperformed, maybe like a Google, maybe you have to think twice about the fact that whatever they put up, it might go the opposite way over the next week or so. We got a 10 % very quick, 9 % move in Microsoft over the last week or so, which we thought that the setup was actually the best it's been in a while.

13:22Melissa Lee:I still think it's good, but obviously not as good as it was a week or so ago. But people were looking for the gap filled down to 420-ish. We didn't get it. We got close. I think there's a very good chance that Microsoft surprises the upside. Which has the best setup? You know, they all are kind of compelling in terms of the proximity of support. So the sentiment point is a very good one. And I think we're not too far too fast yet for Meta or Microsoft. Meta's, you know, just having held this cloud-based support. Microsoft held the 450 area. and even Tesla has some support that ideally it will recover around 440.

13:56So they're coming in relatively oversold, still having reacted to those intermediate term oversold conditions. I think there's more room near term to run.

14:05Tim Seymour:And specifically for Meta, what are you looking for? Which which line item? Which, well, I hope the word notably is notably absent. I'd like that to happen. CapEx for sure. And expenses and revenue growth. Those three things I'm looking for.

14:20Melissa Lee:You know, for me, CapEx is interesting because we've seen this go back and forth over the last year, right? So if they raise CapEx more than expected, sometimes companies have been rewarded for that. And then the opposite. And Meta was clearly the opposite last time, right? The raise was greater than the street expected, and they sold the thing off really hard. At some point, some of these companies, specifically the ones like Microsoft and the enterprise, they're going to have to demonstrate that they're seeing uptake of these products to kind of get investors to continue to buy into this trade.

14:48Melissa Lee:because the longer that they push this out is probably the more likely investors are going to kind of move to other things. And that's what we've seen in memory and storage and some of these other things. So they're happy to take a pause there until they hear if that CapEx has been spent well. And so that's what we're going to get a lot of info about over the next week or so. In real time, we're getting the Doppler effect.

15:10Tim Seymour:What do you mean? The siren. You mean the siren. Yeah. It's New York City.

15:15Melissa Lee:Yeah, BS on what I just said. No. No. No. Oh, that's absolutely true. Doppler's good? The Doppler effect. That's like a real thing. Go to your Google. You have that Chet PCD thing? I do have that. Look it up.

15:26Tim Seymour:The options market applying some big moves for these names, some major action in Tesla specifically. Mike Coe joins us with the action. Hey, Mike. Yeah. So first, we'll just quickly talk about Microsoft on the back of Katie's comments there. It's implying a move of about 4%, which is in line with its average move. So options are reasonably priced. And most of the flow we saw there was bullish. Calls outpacing puts by about 2 to 1. Meta is implying a larger 6.5 % move or thereabouts, and that's somewhat smaller than the 8.5 % it has moved on average over the past eight quarters. The last two quarters, for example, had moves of over 11%.

16:00And Tesla is implying a move of less than 6 % by the end of the week. The longer-term average for Tesla is much larger than that, actually over 9%, but the most recent quarters have been a bit more muted. The most active contracts there were the weekly 440 calls. We saw over 30 ,000 of those trade for about$10.15 a contract. And buyers of those are risking about 2.4 % of the current stock price, betting that Tesla could regain the ground that it lost since Monday's highs.

16:26Tim Seymour:All right, Mike, thank you. Mike Coe with the options action there. Do you think that we're going to see sort of a read-through effect, much of a read-through effect, or are these such disparate stories at this point?

16:39Melissa Lee:Yeah, I think they all are. I mean, maybe Facebook, you get a little bit of a read through. But I think in terms of Microsoft and his other names, I think they're very specific to the stocks. That's my opinion. You know, on the options front, and Mike just kind of detailed it, I mean, the implied moves are less than normal, right? And so we have an S &P at all-time highs. You have a VIX at 16.5. It kind of implies that maybe if you're looking to pick directions, it's not a bad time to use options to find your risk. Were you asking that about MAG-7 or more broadly about the market? How about MAG-7 specifically?

17:07I think that the cloud numbers for Microsoft will really be important for Google and for Amazon.

17:16Tim Seymour:But not for Meta. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Different. Coming up, speaking of tech earnings, we are watching Texas Instruments after hours of numbers and the details from that quarter, why the stock is higher right now. Plus, Amazon's supermarket switch, the changes they are making to their physical fresh and go stores. Now the other grocery stocks are handling the competition. Don't go anywhere. Fast Money is back in tune. This is Fast Money with Melissa Lee, right here on CNBC.

18:08and get finances in order. Let us help you reimagine your enterprise. EY Parthenon, solutions that work in practice, not just on paper. Never bet against American grit or American energy. Through innovation, Venture Global is not only building some of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building. That's Venture Global. That's unstoppable energy.

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19:06And we trust you to make smart decisions. After all, you listen to this show. See terms at discover.com slash credit card.

19:15Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money and Earnings Alert on Texas Instruments. Shares jumping in extended trading despite the chipmaker missing top and bottom line estimates. CNBC's Christina Parts Nevelis has got the latest from the call. Christina. Which actually just ended right now. So Texas Instruments shares, like you said, are just surging about 9 % after hours on significantly stronger than seasonal first quarter guidance. And it's notable because Q1 is typically down due to Chinese New Year. This sequential growth, according to management, isn't coming from higher prices either. So there's three key drivers that I took from the call.

19:44First, industrial, their biggest end market, grew 18 percent year over year with room to run. The CEO called this, in general, one of the, quote, slowest recoveries ever in our history at a time where more semis are used in our life. Second, data center revenue is now 9 percent of total revenue, up 64 percent year over year. That's a dramatic increase. Texas Instrument isn't making the AI chips, but they are making the power management chips that handle data center electrical infrastructure. So they play a role in this build out. And it's now big enough to actually move the numbers. Third, orders improved throughout the quarter, particularly in mobile phones.

20:19Home theaters didn't do well, though. But management is staying pretty cautious. They want to see how sustainable and they use that word on the call, how sustainable this pickup really is, especially after industrial showed signs of life earlier in 2025 and then calmed down throughout the year. But you can see shares and investors really liking this recovery comment. Yep.

20:39Tim Seymour:Christina, thanks. Christina Parts Nevelis. They certainly have been waiting for that analog recovery for quite some time. Guy, it's moving. And you got it.

20:46Melissa Lee:That's exactly what they were. So the quarter wasn't great. I mean, they missed slightly on EPS, missed slightly on revenue. The guide is very good. Although wide, they guided higher clearly. And the 14 % growth in analog, people are saying, you know what, that's a really good sign. Not that there's a problem, but it's a valuation thing. You've got to be comfortable with the valuation it trades at. I think this current price, where's it trading right now? 213. That's huge. That's higher than, I think, the average fact-set price, according to analysts. So we'll see. But I think the move is justified.

21:16Melissa Lee:I don't know how much more legs it has from here because this is right against the prior high, I think.

21:21Tim Seymour:Breaking out the businesses to highlight the data center growth is also a pretty smart thing to do on the part of Texas Instruments to alert investors to the fact that, yes, we are benefiting from AI in some capacity. No, I wonder if this likely gap up tomorrow isn't a selling opportunity. It's a long-term trading range. We've been very constructive on the space. But if you look at the long-term range, there's resistance for Texas around 220. So with that looming, if we see a move up towards that level, it might be an opportunity to take profits. Shares of Corweave, we should note, adding another 10-plus percent today after Deutsche Bank upgraded the AI infrastructure provider to a buy from a neutral, saying the company is in the sweet spot to start booking new business.

22:03Tim Seymour:The analysts also boosting their price target by 40 % to$140 a share. CoreWeave is up 17 % in just two days. Remember, yesterday, NVIDIA announced a$2 billion investment in the company, which sparked that rally in yesterday's session. Do you buy this move higher? Is it durable?

22:20Melissa Lee:It's a tough one. I mean, think about this. Okay, so NVIDIA generates about$60 billion in free cash flow, right? So this is a$4.5 trillion market cap company. They have$60 billion in cash,$10 billion in debt. So for them to throw$2 billion into this ecosystem is probably a pretty easy one. It's kind of funny money. What is CoreWeave going to do with that$2 billion? They're going to buy NVIDIA's products, right? So a lot of this needs to continue to happen, right? This is a very indebted company, CoreWeave. And we've seen what happened when an Oracle has to go to the debt markets, right, to build out their cloud business to actually fulfill the contracts for OpenAI, right?

22:58Melissa Lee:So I guess the point is that NVIDIA is going to continue to do this, and it is to their benefit. And I think that you can criticize the circular nature of this stuff. If it all works, great, have a ball. If it doesn't, we kind of remember what happened with vendor financing going back 25 years ago. And a lot of companies that we thought were really good companies, whether it was Lucent or Nortel or Sun Micro, that were lending their customers money to buy their products went down 95%. Sun Micro Systems went down 95%. It was a$200 billion market cap company at its highs. It sold to Oracle in 2009 for$7 billion.

23:33Melissa Lee:Okay, we're going to have some of this, and some of these companies that have a lot of debt are going to go out of business. But in the meantime, like I said, have at it.

23:41Tim Seymour:SUNW. Remember that? Remember that? Yeah.

23:43Melissa Lee:Last night we had one of the great technicians sitting to my right, the great Carter Worth, and he said that there was more room to the upside in CoreWeave. And we actually said, you know, there's a downtrend from the June high, connect the next level, I think it was in October, and 110-ish is that level. Tonight, we are equally honored to have another great technician. And maybe Katie is looking at a chart and sees the same downtrend that I'm looking at and says, we probably just traded up to it. So we'll see what happens. Yeah, it's right in line, basically. 148, if we see a breakout about this downtrend, could be the next resistance.

24:16So short term, it does look pretty interesting.

24:18Tim Seymour:Yeah. Do you buy into this sort of NVIDIA backstop? I mean, does that improve the CoreWeave story? Apparently it did. But no, I don't. First of all, it's not that much money. Even to CoreWeave, it's not a lot to NVIDIA, but not even to CoreWeave. I guess, you know, it's starting to be sort of a little hyped up again. I would rather, if I may. Yes, you may. I would rather own a little more direct. Where is all of that demand for compute going? It's going to Google and to Amazon and to Microsoft and have the balance sheet and all the cash flow that goes with all of them as opposed to this, you know, finance and build, which is OK.

24:59That's fine. But the risk reward to me seems more compelling elsewhere.

25:02Tim Seymour:All right. There's a lot more fast money to come. Here's what's coming up next. Doubling down on a Whole Foods focus, the supermarket switch from Amazon and the grocery stocks getting cleaned up on aisle 10. Plus, is the greenback weakness creating opportunities abroad, the next move for international investing, and why our next guest says foreign stocks are still trading at a discount? You're watching Fast Money, live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. We're back right after this.

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27:33Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. Amazon popping 2.6 percent today as it announced plans to close its physical Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores and convert some locations into Whole Foods markets. Traditional grocery stocks like Sprouts, Kroger and Albertsons all seeing outsized losses. Instacart parent Maple Bear down almost 6 percent. Of course, they've been weak versus the likes of a Walmart and grocery. And so beefing up would be a direct threat to some of that business as well as traditional grocery. How do you view it? So, I mean, they're just a juggernaut. They just, I mean, the logistics that they are capable of doing.

28:09Walmart, interestingly, gets a higher multiple than Amazon. I don't know that it should. And so that leaves the rest of Amazon's business trading, I think, pretty cheap. So I own Walmart. I own Amazon. But I think I mostly own it. I mostly own it for AWS.

28:25Tim Seymour:I didn't realize that you could order certain things, fresh things, within 30 minutes. Like, there's, like, a super fast function on Amazon. Like, asparagus? Let's say you're making cupcakes and you ran out of frosting. You need white. You need frosting immediately. Does this happen to you with some frequency? Maybe. Okay.

28:43Melissa Lee:I mean, is that where we are as a society? No, I'm asking a serious question.

28:48Tim Seymour:Yes. I guess that's where we are.

28:49Melissa Lee:I'm not. Let's say Kroger real quick. If you look, and Katie can speak to this, 58 was the prior all-time high in the summer of 2022. We're not there yet. They report in early March they're off cycle. There's going to be an opportunity, I think, just on valuation and prior resistance becomes support to buy KR, assuming it continues to sell off on the back of this. I've got to go to your maple bear. This is a cheap stock, right? If you believe the estimates for this year, basically 30 % EPS growth, 10 % sales growth, 75 % gross margins. And, you know, they have a business that I think is somewhat defensible if those kind of unit economics hold up and they can kind of achieve these margins and this sort of growth.

29:28Melissa Lee:That being said, it's also hard when you're going up against these behemoths that are doing the logistics themselves. Obviously, they're going to be infusing AI, which is going to help logistics a great deal. I'm sure Instacart is doing that, too. But it's hard to see this as a standalone for too much longer if you're trying to compete with the likes of Amazon, Walmart, and Kroger.

29:47Tim Seymour:It feels like it's facing an existential threat to its business, right, because it's just sort of the middleman logistics provider. What chart looks the best? You know, looking at the laggards, I would say that they seem to have more downside, more downside to long-term oversold territory. So looking at Kroger, for one, it's about three months away from any kind of countertrend signal in my work. So I do feel like there's more downside there. And then Amazon kind of looks fine, has regained momentum.

30:12Melissa Lee:We do a PSA here real quick. What do you do for me? What do you get from me every day? I get you two oranges. Yes, and I have the peels to prove it. I sit here and eat them. You hand-select them yourself. I do. And I trust you to do that. Actually, I squeeze many.

30:26Tim Seymour:Don't tell anybody here at the NASDAQ. I squeeze many of them to find the best ones.

30:29Melissa Lee:What's your point, Guy? My point is, you know, I trust you to do that. But if I'm ordering from some, I don't. They're just grabbing whatever. They're just grabbing whatever they can. I don't want that, Dan. That's amazing. One thing that's really interesting about the Maple Bear, they have no debt. $1.8 billion in cash. And that cash flow is really good north of.

30:50Tim Seymour:I think someone should buy it. Oh, that's an interesting thought.

30:53Melissa Lee:Buy that thing. Give me a ring.

30:55Tim Seymour:Coming up, we're going international to find out whether there's still opportunity abroad as the dollar weakens. The names our next guest says are still undervalued when Fast Money returns.

31:07Missed a moment of Fast? Catch us anytime on the go. Follow the Fast Money podcast. We're back right after this.

31:21Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. The S &P jumping four-tenths of a percent to close at a record. The Nasdaq rising nearly a percent, but the drop in UNH pushing the Dow into the red, that index down more than 400 points. Shares of Pinterest dropping nearly 10 percent today. The social media company cutting nearly 800 jobs, about 15 percent of its workforce, also reducing office space as it leans into AI. Pinterest stock down 38 percent in the past two years. And some more after hours movers, tech companies Seagate and F5 topping EPS and revenue estimates and wireless products provider Corvo falling after lowering Q4 earnings and revenue guidance.

31:55Tim Seymour:And Meta inking a six billion dollar deal with Corning for fiber optic cables used in its AI data center. Shares of the glassmaker jumping more than 15 percent on its news. its best day since 2004. The stock hitting an intraday high for the first time since 2000. Dan, you follow this one?

32:13Melissa Lee:By the way, Corning, upstate, not far from Syracuse. Yes, that's true. Okay. I hope they can pull this chart up. This is going back to the max chart here. It literally almost touched its all-time high in 2000. And the reason why it touched it, they got a$6 billion order to fulfill fiber optic cable for Facebook for the next four years. I mean, it's literally a rounding error, and it just shows you, like, this is the sort of headline that would have caused the stock to move 20 percent 25 years ago. I just think it's pretty fascinating stuff here. But this is a company where it just became appreciated how they fit in the whole data center ecosystem.

32:50Melissa Lee:But obviously, I'm not chasing this thing.

32:52Tim Seymour:Meantime, the U.S. dollar index hitting levels last seen in early 2022. and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty. President Trump was asked about the recent declines earlier today. Here's what he had to say. I think it's great. I mean, the value of the dollar, look at the business we're doing now. Dollar's doing great. You know, it's very interesting. If you look at China and Japan, I used to fight like hell with them because they always wanted to devalue their yen. You know that? The yen and the yuan. And they'd always want to devalue it. They devalue, devalue, devalue. And I said, not fair that you devalue because it's hard to compete when they devalue.

33:29Tim Seymour:Meanwhile, the dollar's weakness helping stocks overseas, ETFs tracking France, Germany, Japan, all hitting records today, while the Brazil ETF was at nearly four-year highs. For more on investing abroad, Oakmark's David Harrow joins us now. He's the co-CIO of International Equities and manages the Oakmark International ETF. David, great to have you with us. Thank you for the invite today. Happy to be here. This is certainly, the dollar weakness, certainly a tailwind to international investing. But what are some of the other sort of fundamentals going on in other places that make those equities attractive?

34:03Well, you're exactly right. I mean, since it bottomed basically around 2011, 2012, at around the DXY was at about 75. And then it hit a high of about 105, 110 and, you know, 10 years later. Now we're just at 95, 96. So it's just given back maybe the top 10 % of that rise. The strong dollar has been one of the reasons why the international equities as an asset class has underperformed S &P over 7.5, 10, and 15 years. That's not the only reason. The other reason is there's been massive multiple expansion of U.S. stocks and devaluation of foreign stocks. So you've had a double impact causing this underperformance over 10 and 15 years.

34:55Now we're starting to see a turn. You mentioned the dollar, but the earnings growth of these foreign companies is coming through. Of course, not as robust as the U.S., but still. And meanwhile, traditionally, foreign stocks trade at about a 14, 15 percent discount to U.S. stocks when you look at when you're out PEs. Today, we're still at a 25, almost 30 % discount. So you still have undervalued stocks with undervalued currencies, which are just quietly now have risen a bit. But I believe there's a lot more room that this is not normal, that this spread, what we pay for these financial assets is still too large.

35:38So there's still room in the dollar and there's still room in foreign market, foreign stock equity valuation. to revalue.

35:47Tim Seymour:Where are the biggest disconnects in terms of valuation, David, when you take a look at either sectors or geographies? I mean, as you had mentioned, as you alluded to, you know, tech really drew a lot of investors to the United States because of the concentration there. But, you know, in other places, financials or industrials are strong and well represented in overseas indices. Are those valuations still attractive relative to what we're seeing here? Yes, you look at certain stocks, whether they be in the pharma sector, which is a very strong sector located outside the U.S. because the Swiss and the U.K.

36:21have big, strong pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca, Roche, Novartis, etc. They're still selling at good values. Consumer discretionary is a space. People used to pay up for the stability of consumer discretionary and consumer staples. Consumer staples in particular, maybe not as much discretionary. These are looking very, very attractively priced. Companies like Danone and Unilever. So there are areas, luxury good. U.S. really doesn't have a luxury good sector. And for the last year or two, primarily because of the weakness of the Chinese consumer, probably a big function of their real estate bubble popping, primarily because of this weakness, Companies like Louis Vuitton and Kiering and Richemont.

37:10Richemont, of course, is Cartier. They have not really sold these kind of valuations when you look at normal earnings in a long time. So these are all things, in our view, that represent good value, and they're all global companies. People don't like to invest in European companies because they see slow growth, bureaucratic, overregulated Europe. All true. But the businesses do business all over the world. If you look at a company like BMW, one-third of their business is Asia, one-third is Europe, one-third is North America. So these are really good global businesses that have their valuations being punished because of where they're being located.

37:50We think it represents great opportunity, especially when you look at a company like BMW, the free cash flow yield well over 10 percent and probably growing 4 or 5 percent. David, it's Karen. Thanks for being on. So we saw from the notes that you think Japan is expensive. Can you talk about how expensive you think it is and what you think about it more broadly? Here is the issue with Japan. As value investors, and at Harris Oakmark, this is what we hang our head on. We're value investors. Value to us is not just the price you pay, but it's a fraction. it. It's what you get for the price you pay.

38:27So if you look at the average return on equity of a Japanese company, quite skinny, 8 % or 9%. Average return on equity of a U.S. company, well into the 20s. European company, in the high teens. So that's kind of a proxy for what you're getting. If you look at their margin structure, return on capital structure, all the same thing. Japan, very low. What about the price you pay? The price you pay for Japanese equities is about 18, 19 times. Not as anywhere near the peak, what we saw in 1989 when it was at 65 or 70 times, five times book value. So the market has derated. But in our view as value investors, who also consider the quality of the business, what we get, it's just not there.

39:14It's really hard to find. I mean, take a company like Kao, kind of the Procter & Gamble of Japan, has 9%, 10 % margins. Procter & Gamble has mid-20s. Rickett Binkheiser has mid-20s. So there's just this disconnect between how corporate Japan is run. And that's not to say we want to buy Japanese stock. We do. We have owned them. And we're overweight in periods of time. But the risk return, what you get for the price you pay just isn't there for a value investor, despite the run it's had, by the way.

39:46Tim Seymour:David, thanks so much for joining us. Really appreciate your time. Thank you very much for inviting me. David Arrow, what do you think about Japan being expensive is interesting.

39:58Melissa Lee:Expensive now, but relative to where it's been, as you pointed out, not so much. And it is expensive. And there are things going on clearly in their bond market and their currency that you have to watch out for. So that could derail the whole thing. I'll say this. You mentioned Brazil. We've been talking about this for quite some time. And energy, materials, financials, you get it all with Brazil at multi-year highs, EWZ. be, that's the place I think you continue to play with.

40:19Tim Seymour:AMNA NAWAZ, Yeah. And you think EM could be a catch-up trade? ANNA NAWAZ, Yeah. Well, within EM, there's been a lot more dispersion than normal. We have seen outperformance from Korea, from Taiwan, but not so much from China technology, like the K-Web ETF, Hang Seng Index. Those have actually lagged over the past few months. And that's where I think there's a point of interest as a potential catch-up trade with both of these sort of benchmarks or proxies for the Hong Kong index and also for China tech, I feel like they have support basically in line and improved momentum near these support levels.

40:54So that's a more interesting setup to me than the more extended areas.

40:58Tim Seymour:Coming up, shares of UnitedHealth falling hard on a rough revenue outlook and Medicare rate concerns. Can this once God-like stop turn things around? We'll get some answers. And don't miss our next CNBC Pro live event, Wealth for Women, financial strategies for women who are investing for themselves and for others. Both Karen and Katie will be there. The event is May 28th here at the Nasdaq Market site. Scan the QR code on your screen or visit cnbcevents.com slash wealthforwomen. Fast Money is back in tune.

41:32Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. shares of UnitedHealthcare sinking almost 20 percent, their worst day since last April. The company giving weak revenue guidance for the year after news last night that the Trump administration proposed holding Medicare Advantage rates basically steady. That news also hitting other insurers hard. Humana, CVS, Centene, and Molina all seeing outsized gains here. Katie, how do the charts look here? Well, it was a pretty rough day, of course, with all these gaps down. And what happened was they came into this news somewhat overbought, too, and near resistance on their charts.

42:04So UNH for one was right up against our cloud model. And same with the IHF ETF, which is the kind of the healthcare providers ETF or proxy for the space. And it looks bad. I mean, we have a short-term breakdown, overbought downturns associated with this gap down, and a lot of room to the next support. So for UNH, we have next support around 250 on the chart, which is still a good amount of room. And for IHF, it's preserved that downtrend, that long-term downtrend defined by the cloud. So it is a setback. Are you in Elevance still? I am not. I'm happy to not. Yeah. Yeah. I don't miss it. I mean, you know, we're still friends, but we're not together anymore.

42:44So but UNH, I think it'll be interesting to see what happens with the Berkshire stake. We won't see the F until, I don't know, May 15th, I guess. But they have five million shares. That's not a small position for them. Maybe it is. We'll see if they buy more or not.

42:59Melissa Lee:The bounce from the July, Katie's looking at this, I'm sure, that 234 low, the 65 % bounce in the stock over the last six months. But if you look long term, it's barely a blip. And that low that we saw last summer seems to be in the crosshairs. Big volume day today, which is encouraging, nine times normal volume, but it doesn't feel like it found a floor yet.

43:20Tim Seymour:All right. Coming up, Bitcoin buy signals what Katie Stockton sees in the crypto charts and why she thinks the token could bounce back after a rough couple of months. It's a technical take on Bitcoin and Fast Money Returns.

43:42Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. Bitcoin prices continue to trade below the$90 ,000 mark. But could there be signs that crypto is about to resume its rally mode? Katie, what do you see? Well, we do have Bitcoin right down into some support on the chart. It's based on our cloud model. So it's a make or break point for Bitcoin and that it needs to hold essentially in line and respond to what are some new short term oversold indications. We've been seeing some backing and filling from the cryptocurrency market more broadly for the past few weeks or even longer than that. That backing and filling represents improved intermediate term momentum.

44:20It's still not positive, of course, but it's less negative. And because that's happened near support, that gives Bitcoin and other altcoins a better chance of rebounding here. And as of the last couple of days, we've started to see these signals arise. They're based on the DeMarc indicators. We have the Bitwise ETF, the BITW, showing one of these signals. And they've been pretty timely, both on the buy side and on the sell side. So we're compelled by these signals, and it's sort of the last chance for Bitcoin to hold this support. The last chance.

44:52Melissa Lee:Well, essentially, I would actually rather play some of these names that went public last year. One of them is Bullish, CEO of the company, friend of the show, Tom Farley, just to be very clear. It's got high short interest. It's very tightly held. Sixty percent of the shares are within three shareholders. So when you think about that, it's below its IPO price. It wouldn't take a lot of, like we were talking about last night, just a little bit of good news. You've got a big short squeeze going in these sorts of things. I'd rather play that that looks like a coiled spring than, let's say, Bitcoin, which seems a little controversial right here.

45:21MicroStrategy now went 160 down from 400. Still, that one I wouldn't play. But I get what you're saying, just for a bounce. I can see it. But I'm long staying long Bitcoin.

45:33Melissa Lee:84 ,000. I mean, that was the law, I think, in November a couple times. The good news is we've tested a couple times in bounce. The bad news is we've tested it a couple times. I mean, it needs to—this is last chance. She's right. This is it. You need to have this above 95 ,000 over the next couple weeks. Otherwise, I think it's a foregoing conclusion that we trade lower.

45:51Tim Seymour:All right. Up next, final trade.

46:05Tim Seymour:It is time for the final trade. Let's go around the horn. Katie Stockson, a fair lead. I'm interested in USO. It's the United States Oil Fund. and it's a play on crude oil prices getting above their 200-day moving average. Great to have you on the desk, Katie. Thank you. Karen? Yes, I always learn something from Katie. That's fun. You know, big earnings tomorrow, meta. I'm going home with the girl that brought me to the dance. Long meta. Stan?

46:32Melissa Lee:Yeah, I always learn something from you. So, yeah, I think things like bullish, I think they're kind of interesting. I think the guy's point about Bitcoin, the good thing is it tested at that level, the bad thing it tested at level. Some of these things get really oversold on the single stock standpoint. So I think something like bullish could be a good trade. Not that anybody particularly cares, but I've been to Brazil twice in my life. Yes, by actually.

46:54Tim Seymour:In Sao Paulo.

46:55Melissa Lee:In Rio. Twice. I can't go back. And we'll share that on the after hours Fast Money. EWZ, though, Mel. Thank you.

47:04Tim Seymour:Thank you for watching Fast Money. See you back here tomorrow at 4 for Closing Bill Overtime. Mad Money with Jim Cramer starts right 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.

47:40To 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.

From the publisher

GM surging to a fresh record high as the automaker tops earnings expectations. The dividend and buyback announcements they’re making, and what CEO Mary Barra had to say about the company’s next move. Plus A look at overseas investing, as the weaker dollar boosts markets abroad. Where one portfolio manager sees the biggest discounts, and the foreign stocks that could climb even higher.

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