Nasdaq Hits 20,000 For First Time Ever… And Nuclear’s Renaissance Description 12/11/24

0:01Live from the Nasdaq market site on another record breaking day. This is fast money. Here's what's on tap tonight. A major milestone for the Nasdaq. topping the 20 ,000 mark for the first time in history. The tech-heavy index doubling in the last four years. Can anything stop this red-hot rally? We'll debate that. Plus, mining for opportunities. We'll travel to the far reaches of Canada for an exclusive look at the world's largest uranium miner, what they've got going on underground, and how Cameco has positioned itself as a big winner in the space. And later, telehealth company Roe inking a deal with Eli Lilly to offer cheaper vials of its weight-loss drug ZepBound.

0:36We will talk to the CEO, Zach Ritano, about the news and what it means for the compounding industry. I'm Melissa Lee, coming to you live from Studio B at the NASDAQ on the desk tonight. Tim Seymour, Karen Freiderman, Dan Nathan, and Guy Adami. We start off with that big round number for the NASDAQ, the index closing above 20 ,000 for the first time ever. Today's nearly 2 % move comes courtesy of some of the biggest names pinging fresh highs of their own. Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Netflix, and Tesla, all hitting intraday records. And today's milestone comes about four and a half years after the Nasdaq first crossed 10 ,000.

1:11The biggest gainers in the Nasdaq 100 over that period, NVIDIA up more than 1 ,300 percent. Super micro just behind that. Tesla, Broadcom, Palo Alto, each up more than 400 percent. So does today's action give the all clear for that tech trade? Guy. All clear. I mean, I love that all clear. I mean, so the six names that we just had up on the screen, you know, I was looking at it. I'm trying to figure out where have I been on some of these things. So Apple clearly missed the boat. Tesla, without question. Amazon, I've been quasi-ambivalent. The other three, I mean, Netflix, Facebook, and Google, I think we've done a decent job.

1:48So all clear. I don't know. Valuation on three of those names, you could definitely still make a case for, despite the fact that we've seen these unbelievable moves. The other ones, I'm not so sure. and couple that with the fact that yields on what people were saying was a soft CPI number actually went higher today, which one has to keep in the rearview mirror without question. Yeah, CPI, I think, probably gave enough for the bulls, though, to feel that the Fed is in line for December. Disinflation certainly maybe is taking a pause, but inflation is not running amok. You have a PPI tomorrow. So back to big cap tech.

2:21What's exciting for market players is that the market itself has been going higher without the participation of mega cap tech, really outside of Tesla. And yes, Netflix is great, but the other Mag6 are ones that I think, give or take, had not been giving us the leadership really for the last two months. What we saw today was semiconductors did lead the way again, a nice bounce on a relative chart to the S &P. So we were at some relative support yesterday. I brought that up. I mean, I just think if you are getting the kind of move we are getting from some of the names, and they all have little catalysts if you want to believe.

2:53I mean, Apple and Broadcom today talking about a server chip, their own way to get into the game. Broadcom reports tomorrow. I actually think some of the cyclicality of their business also could be decent. So if you want the market to take the next leg higher, boy, today was as good of a day as you could have asked for, because these are the names that are the horses. Karen, you've been away for a while. Welcome back. Yes, thank you. What do you make of this rally you've come back to? I mean, it just seems like animal spirits just, you know, kind of running amok. It doesn't sort of matter which mag seven was clearly really strong, but a lot of other things were, although with the exception of industrials, not financials.

3:29I mean, they've had a big run, but kind of lukewarm today. Bitcoin, again, topping 100 ,000 after pulling back to, I don't know, 94, 5. So I don't know. I feel like it's just animal spirits run amok. And I feel like animal spirits, they don't stop at fair value. They continue to go, you know. So, I mean, I'm long. This is really fun. It will end. I'm sure the VIX is really low now. Probably a decent time to buy some protection, which I haven't done yet. But I feel like for right now, sort of, I don't know. When you talk about the animal spirits, they're going after the biggest stuff right now.

4:07Normally at this stage of the rally, you would expect it to be a lot of crap. And I'm not exactly buying what Tim's serving up here about. I look at the equal weight. Bring it on. Put it up. Put them up. I look at the equal weight S &P and it's up 16 % of the year, right? And you look at, let's say, the NASDAQ, it's doubled up that performance. So what is that telling you? It's telling you that all the stuff that got us here, it continues to get us here. And so it becomes increasingly narrow. So let me, semiconductors haven't made new highs since July. The NASDAQ hasn't made a new high to the S &P relative since July.

4:38So the horses haven't really been bridled and running. We've been getting financials. We've been getting other parts of the consumer space, discretionary. So, I mean, I agree we need these stocks, but you can't tell me they have led the market for the last few months. So every one of the Mag 7s at all-time highs. Apple's up 28 % of the year. NVIDIA's up 181 % of the year. Microsoft underperforms, and it's a little off its highs, but it's up 20 % of the year. Google up 40 % of the year. Amazon up 51 % of the year. Meta up 80 % of the year. Tesla up 75%. But you're talking about on the year. I mean, I know those numbers as well.

5:10This is like$15 trillion or more in market cap, and it's half the weight almost of the S &P 500. It definitely is half the way to the NASDAQ 100. So if you look at just look at the equal weight. My point is that on a relative basis, these stocks have actually underperformed the S &P. They're starting to pick up steam. But if you look at the triple Q's to the S &P, they haven't made a relative. I don't know. A lot of our viewers are thinking about relative here. You know what I mean? Like they're actually. Well, that was my point. My point was that the rest of the market's rallying. And if these stocks now want to rally, they're going to take the market higher.

5:40We split you guys up. Yeah. We had a clear day. I was clear as day on that. So, I mean, you know. Yeah. You seem a little miffed, by the way. No, I'm not. I'm happy to split up. I'm happy to talk this up again. You're saying we need that leadership, otherwise the market's going to run into a problem. And you're saying that we have the leadership and the market has a problem. I'm not saying the market has a problem. You're both saying the markets are not. No, he's not saying the market has a problem. I'm saying the markets are ready to go higher because you finally have participation from companies that not have been bad performers.

6:10We know what they've done, but they haven't performed relative to the market. They haven't led the market higher for three months. And we all know that. I mean, so you look at the chart, the relative crippled queues to the S &P. When did it peak? In July. I thought, sorry, I thought you said that we need the titans to run in order for the markets to go even higher. You're saying the opposite. I mean, like, yeah. I just don't agree with that. I mean, I just don't agree with that. You don't think we're broadening? Well, look at the equal weight S &P. Look at the Russell 2000. You know, the banks are kind of stuck in the mud here a little bit.

6:41NVIDIA is stuck now a little bit. What? What do you got? Banks have rallied. They've outperformed significantly in the last few months. Of course, over the last few months. I don't disagree with that. I mean, you listen to me. I've been saying since July, the rest of the market has outperformed what have been the stocks we're talking about today. And I'm saying that's great news because today they're showing the kind of leadership that can take the market higher. Are we split up still? You are still split up. I don't know. I mean, listen, have at it. Someone else come in here. I mean, I feel like I'm speaking another language.

7:14Guy, you speak some other stuff. Guy speaks in tongues a little bit here. Tim's been pretty consistent for a long time, and he's been spot on. I've tried to punch holes in this thing, and it's been unsuccessful at best. I'm not even punching holes. It's not about up or down. I'm just saying, just look at the price action today. I mean, Google has rallied 10 % in a straight line for the next two days. Google has rallied$20 in two days. About a quantum development that we have no idea what that means. Google was sort of really underperforming, right? You know, even Meta had been cheaper for a while.

7:48Let's talk about Apple for a second. Because you just mentioned the Broadcom thing. I saw that. I read the story this morning. That's great. By the time they develop this chip and integrate it and all their stuff, and Apple Intelligence is working with it, we're talking like late 26, maybe 27 sort of stuff. So the stock, Apple didn't rally today, right? So Apple's trading at 34 times single-digit expected growth. iPhones are not growing. Apple intelligence is a zero. Apple has rallied 30 % since June 10th when they introduced Apple. The super cycle upgrade, not happening here, people. And we've been saying this.

8:20So both things can be right. The fundamentals can be stuck in the market. I know. It's at a runaway breakout. So what is that? That's multiple expansion. It tells you animal spirits are taking over this market. And they could go much higher. I'm not making a case to sell the market. I'm just saying if you're chasing these things right here and you're just getting into the trade, it doesn't seem like a great spot. Let me ask this question. Let's say it's animals, whatever it is causing the market. What are those, by the way? Animal spirits, the spirits of animals. Risk off. Abandoning risk just going forward.

8:49Right. Part of this is the expectation of policy that will be supportive of the market, right? All sorts of mergers are going to happen and all sorts of very corporate taxes that will go down, etc. At some point, that's going to meet the reality of what actually does happen. And I'm wondering, in your view, when would these animal spirits break? What would be the break? I mean, would it be like the inauguration? When would the levy break, Guy? If it keeps on raining. I mean, it is. You know, I'm probably the wrong person to ask because I thought it was going to break for such a long time for a myriad of different reasons, none of which have come to fruition.

9:27I do think that valuation at some point is important. And it's not that you trade on valuation, but the more expensive the market gets And if you look at that Buffett indicator, which is now 209 percent, the last time we saw anything close to that was pre-dot-com crisis in 99-2000. It gives the market less and less room for error. So therein lies my concern. To me, it's probably tariffs. So a lot of the things that you've named are really sort of unequivocally good, right? So we have low regulations. That's good. Merger mania. That's good. All kinds of, you know, animal spirits running free. Tariffs, I think, will be cold water on.

10:09Wow. These are they could be inflationary. They could be, you know, we could enter into a trade war and all of the, you know, tit for tat that goes along with that. And then fear, which is not there right now. So to me, that would be the first tariff discussion of. Which which is interesting that you point out tariffs in particular, because we've already seen a glimpse of what could happen. I mean, China has, you know, rare earth. No, you know, we're doing all these things here, sort of a preview of the toolbox of China that Beijing could use in response to a Trump-induced tariff war. And nobody cares.

10:44Well, there's no question that we have a lot of unknown in 25. I mean, you know, we're talking about right now, I'm talking about seasonality. I'm talking about market leadership. And I'm talking about there's no questioning that the S &P multiple is at a level on a forward basis that we haven't seen in a long time. There's also no question that the five biggest stocks or the seven biggest stocks have never had a bigger weighting in the S &P. And these are 35 to 40 PE stocks. So by the nature of how the index is structured, you're going to have an S &P that looks expensive. They're also the ones that they're growing the most.

11:15So. Oh, go ahead, Dan. I was going to say, if you're talking about chasing the market into year end, I was just looking at the SPX. So that's S &P 500. If you look at the at the money straddle, that's a call premium plus the put premium. It's about one and a half percent between now and December 31st. So if you're bullish, you can actually make, you know, under one percent, you know, at the money bull call for the next 20 days, you know, into the that seems unusually cheap. Now, I think we're all in agreement. There's nothing that's going to unhinge this market at this point. I think you make the most important point is like what is built into the market about policy.

11:48Right. And so I actually want to go the opposite way. I actually think that they're not going to be a trade war. Definitely not in 2025. They're going to keep jawboning it. I think taxes probably, you get the extension of the current tax. I don't think they go much lower. And so, like, at the end of the day, we probably end up having similar policy. Some of the M &A we might see, maybe it was just kind of put off for a couple of years. It's not going to change the market structure. It's not going to change any specific industry that maybe some of the FTC and the DOJ suits go by the wayside for some of the big tech.

12:14But I think everything is kind of in place to continue to do what it's doing, except for the fact that what sort of performance have we pulled forward about all the excitement, whether it's generative AI going into other industries, whether it's quantum computing, whether it's, you know, whatever the heck, that's kind of the issue here. So I don't know. In terms of policy today, the most important policy is Fed policy. OK. And today we got at least some some green light for a December cut. There's nothing going to stand in the Fed's way here to calibrate a little lower, which I think is Steve's word of yesterday.

12:44It's great to have Steve Leisman here. The Fed to me is the biggest impediment to 25 right now because all the other things geopolitics in one of the worst geopolitical years of all time, the market went screaming higher. I'm not saying there won't be a comeuppance at some point. I do believe all of this expectation of Trump policy that we still have to see rubber hit the road is a very much an unknown. But most importantly is if equity markets have the Fed as their friend and the labor market stays strong and people have jobs and we actually have growth, it's great for equities. I think the Fed as a friend is more priced in than how friendly they will actually be.

13:19Right. I think that seems like a sort of, you know, a foregone conclusion that they will cut 25 basis points in the next meeting. And maybe that doesn't really matter. But I do think that Powell will have a hawkish tone. And I think that, I mean, we'll see unless things change dramatically. Why do we need to cut with the market where it is with the GDP? Is it supposedly still restrictive? Restrictive how? I mean, I don't. I don't see it. I don't see it. I don't really I don't see it. So I don't know unless things change dramatically. To me, the Fed will not be your friend. But I don't know. Maybe the market doesn't care.

13:59No, I think just to tie a bow, I think Tim thinks the employment picture can remain. It has. But my concern in this year, it didn't come to fruition like many things. But the unemployment rate starts to move in a way the market's not prepared for. That's a concern. And interest rates going higher. I'll say again, you know, today's the day where the TLT should have rallied in a meaningful way, given that number, which was better than, I think, the whisper number that people were looking for. The fact that yields are sort of headed back up, in my opinion, is concerning. All right. We've got an earnings alert on Adobe.

14:29Shares are sinking despite the company being on the top and the bottom lines. Conference call kicking off at the top of the hour. Seema Modi's dialed in. She's got all the details. Seema? Melissa, solid results from Adobe, but a more conservative setup for 2025. That is the takeaway from RBC Capital analyst Matthew Swanson, who has a neutral rating on the stock and a$610 price target. CEO Shantanu Narayan telling CNBC that currency headwinds are to blame for Adobe's light guidance. Oracle, remember, did talk about the negative impact of the stronger dollar earlier this week. Narayan also reiterated that it's making progress in finding ways to monetize artificial intelligence with enterprise customers.

15:06Adobe's AI Assistant, he says, continues to accelerate. two new languages, French and German, recently being added to the platform, which Narayan says will help increase bookings, not just here, but overseas. In fact, he says demand is increasing in emerging markets. But Wall Street has been a bit more cautious on this stock, which shares underperforming its software peers this year, though it has rallied in recent weeks. One of the concerns out there, Melissa, has been competition from OpenAI. Back to you. All right. Seema, thank you. Seema Modi. Currency, that's an interesting excuse for weak guidance.

15:40I never loved currency, is it? Yeah. I know, and it's not like we've all seen where the dollar's going. Well, when it's better than expected, they say on a constant currency basis. When it hurts them, they say currency is the thing. I mean, I know the guy's going to say that. I'm shocked that the stock's down 8 % on that quarter and that guidance. It's not a particularly big miss. I think it's like 2 % at the midpoint for both earnings and sales. So to me, it's just fascinating. We just talked about all this stuff in the NASDAQ that's going berserk, and this thing's down 8%. It's down on the year.

16:08It just hasn't participated at all. It's been a tough run for a couple of really what were the software juggernauts for years. But I will say in terms of FX dynamics, SAP, who's a competitor from abroad, has pointed out that actually FX is a tailwind for them. So if you think about multinationals around the world, someone that really would be competing on some level, at least in the software space, it's actually it is good news. If our crack staff in EC can pull up a longer-term chart, you'll see we've been in this downtrend in Adobe since the all-time high in November of 2021. The uptrend's been in place since early 2022.

16:41This pennant formation, which has been created, like what I did there, is almost on the point of being violated now on the downside. So this is important to watch for you technical players out there. And Dan's right about the guide. It wasn't a disaster. But given the magnitude of the beat this quarter and the fact that they sort of ratcheted things back, for your next year, I think it's concerning people. All right, coming up, ride share stocks getting hit. Why a U-turn from GM on its robo-taxi project is sinking shares of Uber and Lyft. That's next. Plus, nuclear power taking off as AI data centers drive fuel demand, and companies are increasingly turning to uranium to help power the surge.

17:17Our own Pippa Stevens has an inside look at Cameco's Cigar Lake mine in northern Saskatchewan. Pippa? Demand for uranium is rising amid the nuclear renaissance, and Cameco is the Western world's largest producer. We got an exclusive look at their Cigar Lake mine in northern Saskatchewan and take you inside, coming up next on Fast Money.

17:45Welcome back to Fast Money. We've got a buzzkill on Uber and Lyft both dropping on new signs. They are falling behind in the robo-taxi race. GM saying yesterday would no longer fund autonomous vehicle developments in its cruise unit, citing the increasingly competitive market that right now is dominated by Tesla and Waymo. GM had spent over$10 billion developing Cruises' driverless ride-hailing service. It'll combine Cruises' operations with its own technical teams and shift focus to self-driving in personal vehicles. Now, Lyft was added to the bicep to make bicep, Tim, and maybe you regret that move now, but, you know, do you still see the promise here?

18:24The need for an interface, a platform for these RoboTaxi. Look, I'll wear whatever egg you want to throw at me for the Blysep. I'm not sure I demanded the Lyft to be the Ellen Blysep, but there it is, and there it's been all year in good times and in bad, and these are bad times. So I think it's a case where, first of all, selling GM on this news is crazy, okay, because GM has zero crews in their valuation. And in fact, if anything, I would have thought it would rally on this news to stay focused. And again, profitability needs to be where it is. In terms of lift, I still think the short-term fundamentals are more important, which is normalization of their core market, taking back some market share from Uber and driver normalization, and even some of the regulatory headwinds that were at least reasons to sell the stock.

19:07I get that this is a big longer-term concern, but I will stay long and keep it in the blicep. You made the point that Waymo is using Waymo One, which is their own platform when it enters cities like Phoenix. Yeah. And listen, I'm sure they're going to get it right, you know, and Uber has to get autonomy right at some point. But I don't think it's this year or next. And I think you could kind of take the over as far as when, you know, Tesla robo taxi is going to be on the road and really threatening Uber. I think Uber is a layup here, down 30 percent since the day that it closed up at an all time high after that Tesla robo taxi event.

19:41It's getting killed for a whole host of different reasons, largely for the same reasons over the last two weeks. You look at the expected growth. Actually, I do not think Waymo or any of These robo things are going to be weighing on their growth. So to me, I think it's really interesting down 30 percent in a month and a half. I agree with you on GM. It shouldn't matter. But it was up yesterday after I was on the news and then today was down. Well, we were talking today about, oh, you remember what GM talked about? Or there was the rumors of GM spinning out Cruz and how good that would have been.

20:09The valuation would have been huge. GM could have had a huge stake. It would have had money. I know. And now to just absorb it and have it quietly go away. But it seems the right thing to do. Coming up, the nuclear renaissance is here. Power-hungry AI data centers pushing companies to find alternative sources of fuel. Our Pippa Stevens joins us next from the world's highest-grade uranium mine for an inside look. We're in this elevator descending 1 ,600 feet underground to the world's highest-grade uranium mine. We've got an exclusive look at Kemetote's Cigar Lake operation. I'll take you inside coming up next on Fast Money.

20:49Welcome back to Fast Money. Uranium miners have been rushing to meet the surge in demand for nuclear power to keep AI data centers running. Our Pippa Stevens took three planes, traveled more than 2 ,600 miles over more than 15 hours to remote northern Saskatchewan, Canada, to get an inside look at the world's highest grade uranium mine. Also, she is standing in minus 18 degree weather. Pippa? Yeah, Melissa, if you couldn't believe it, it was actually cold earlier in the day. But down in the mine, it's much more comfortable, a relatively balmy 40 degrees. And we got an inside look at just how Cameco mines this valuable but very challenging uranium deposit.

21:37This is one of Cigar Lake's active development regions. So this big drill blasts about two to four meters every single day. And after that happens, all of that rock has to be brought back up to the surface. Cigar Lake developed a specialized jet boring system to access this very high grade of uranium. The system runs along these tracks so that they can move it along the length of this tunnel. This is the jet boring system. It was developed for Cigar Lake. And this is the only place in the world where this type of machine is used. Behind me is the water pump station. The specialized jet boring system developed here at Cigar Lake requires highly pressurized water in order to access those ore cavities.

22:15It's traveling at about 15 ,000 psi. This is where all of the ore slurry that contains the uranium is pumped. This machine called the clam then drops down and picks up the uranium from the bottom and then sends it back for grinding before it's eventually pumped up to the surface. And Melissa, that tower over there, that is Mineshaft 1. That's the elevator that we were in. It can hold up to 40 ,000 pounds. And all those shots used off of underground, all of those are right below my feet here. This is just spectacular, Pip. I mean, it's amazing reporting here. How much can Cameco decide to just turn up production?