Oil Spikes On Latest Mideast Developments… And Opportunity In The Volatility 5/4/26

4 May 2026 · 47 min · 20 chapters

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In short

Energy and markets amid Middle East escalation; retail trading behavior; AI policy vetting; logistics competition from Amazon; earnings/stock moves (Palantir, transport stocks, others); private credit and bond-market outlook; Devil Wears Prada 2 box office.

Guests (backgrounds)

Megan Casella (White House correspondent). James Castulius (Charles Schwab head of trading services; runs Schwab Trading Activity Index and sentiment surveys). Kate Rooney (CNBC reporter). Seema Modi (CNBC). Katie Koch (TCW Group CEO; long private credit, manages public/private credit). Wendy Feinerman (producer of Devil Wears Prada 2; Academy Award winner).

Key claims

WTI +4% and Brent highest since mid-March; gas/diesel at multi-year highs tied to Strait of Hormuz missile activity and ceasefire uncertainty. Equities rally despite oil/yields rising; volatility lower but “higher for longer.” Retail bullishness waning but engagement high; smaller trades, more covered calls/put-selling. White House considering AI model vetting/working group. Amazon opening logistics to shippers pressures UPS/FedEx. Palantir guidance raised; commercial growth 133% vs 137% expected. TCW: equities overvalued; credit spreads too tight; opportunity in distress/private credit.

Notable examples

AAA gas $4.46; diesel ~$5.50; UAE missile alert first time since April 8 ceasefire. Amazon deals with Procter & Gamble, 3M, American Eagle. Palantir DoD focus; “LLMs as commodities.” Devil Wears Prada 2: $234M worldwide opening, #1.

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

Chapters

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Energy Prices Surge Amid Middle East Tensions

0:36 to 1:00

Discussion on the significant rise in energy prices due to Middle East conflicts.

“including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions, and key results and statistics that may impact your trading.”

Energy Prices Surge Amid Middle East Tensions

1:39 to 3:36

Discussion on the significant rise in energy prices due to Middle East conflicts.

“We start off with that massive move in energy prices as tensions in the Middle East flare again.”

Market Reactions to Energy Price Fluctuations

3:36 to 6:28

Analysis of how rising energy prices are affecting bond yields and equities.

“We cited the rise in the price of diesel compared to a year ago.”

Retail Investor Sentiment and Trading Activity

6:28 to 10:40

Insight into retail investor behavior and confidence in the current market.

“Relatively, yields are at the top end of the range.”

Impact of Energy Prices on Trading Trends

10:40 to 14:00

Exploration of the correlation between rising energy prices and trading strategies.

“I think bullishness is absolutely waning, but confidence is still up.”

Market Behavior Amid Energy Price Spikes

14:00 to 14:58

Discussion on how rising energy prices influence trading behavior in the market.

“And then we see clients who are, you know, still have decent sized cash positions in what we would call investing cash in purchase money funds, sort of maybe waiting for the market to come down a bit.”

Retail Investment Trends and Energy Stocks

14:58 to 16:10

Analysis of retail investor behavior and their interest in energy stocks amidst market volatility.

“James, be interesting to see what they say in about a month.”

Government Oversight on AI Development

16:10 to 18:18

Exploration of potential new government regulations on AI technology and its implications.

“Kate Rooney confirms the administration is considering vetting new models before they are released.”

Cybersecurity and AI Partnerships

18:18 to 19:48

Discussion on the collaboration between AI companies and the government for cybersecurity measures.

“They want a heads up and to be able to give it the thumbs up to go out there.”

Amazon's Logistics Expansion Impact

21:42 to 24:12

Examination of Amazon's new logistics services and their effect on UPS and FedEx.

“Welcome back to Fast Money UPS and FedEx.”
Show all 20 chapters

Market Impact of Amazon's Logistics Moves

24:12 to 25:12

Discussion about the implications of Amazon's logistics strategies for competitors and the market.

“And I think some of this is just a little bit of a give back.”

Palantir Earnings Report Analysis

25:12 to 28:00

Analysis of Palantir's earnings report and its implications for future growth.

“Next, you're watching Fast Money live from the Nasdaq Market Site in Times Square.”

Palantir's Earnings Analysis

28:00 to 31:20

Discussion on Palantir's earnings report and market reactions.

“calling them commodities and said Palantir remains agnostic and that it can plug and play any in and out of its platform.”

Upcoming Milton Conference Insights

31:20 to 31:30

Preview of the Milton Conference and guest Katie Koch's insights.

“Coming up, the sounds and sights from the Milton Conference in Beverly Hills.”

Katie Koch on Private Credit Opportunities

31:30 to 38:10

Katie Koch discusses the current state and opportunities in private credit.

“Stocks seeing losses to kick off the week.”

Public vs. Private Market Perspectives

38:10 to 40:00

Discussion on the differences between public and private markets and current strategies.

“you when we're in my hometown and not on the road somewhere exotic around the world.”

The Devil Wears Prada Sequel Impact

40:00 to 42:01

Discussion on the box office success of The Devil Wears Prada sequel.

“She will join us next when Fast Money returns.”

The Movie Experience: A Collective Escape

42:01 to 43:42

Learn how the latest film is bringing people together for a nostalgic escape from reality.

“We were talking over the weekend about the fantastic Weekend box office.”

Challenges in the Movie Industry

43:43 to 45:09

Discover the current challenges faced by the film industry, including streaming and market changes.

“But how tough is the movie business, even for somebody like you these days?”

Disney's Impact on Filmmaking

45:10 to 47:08

Understand how Disney's marketing and partnerships are changing the filmmaking landscape.

“And I'm sure Andy Sachs is a Fast Money fan.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00At Venture Global, we think about what can be done, not what's usually done. 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 in a fraction of the time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building. That's Venture Global. That's unstoppable energy. This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information-packed daily market preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions, and key results and statistics that may impact your trading.

0:49Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash marketupdatepodcast or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts.

1:00Tim 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. Pain at the pump, energy prices spiking, and gas hitting levels not seen in nearly four years. How the conflict in the Middle East is weighing on markets and what it means for consumers. Plus, Amazon takes a big bite out of transport companies. Bitcoin hits three-month highs. What GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen had to say about his bid for eBay. And it was a big haul at the box office for haute couture and high drama. We'll talk to the producer of the Devil Wears Prada 2, Karen's own sister, Wendy Feinerman, the dish on opening weekend and what it means for the movie business this year.

1:36Tim Seymour:I'm Melissa Leak, home to you live from Studio B at the NASDAQ. On the desk tonight, Karen Feinerman, Tim Seymour, and Carter Braxton Worth. We start off with that massive move in energy prices as tensions in the Middle East flare again. WTI crude jumping more than 4%, while Brent hit its highest level since mid-March. Gas prices, meantime, soared to their highest since July 2022. The average cost of a gallon of diesel now stands at nearly five and a half dollars, almost two dollars more than it was a year ago. That's according to AAA. All this after the UAE said it has intercepted a number of missiles fired from Iran.

2:10Tim Seymour:There were also reports of an Iranian attack on a U.S. warship. For the latest developments out of the region, let's bring in Megan Casella, who's at the White House. Megan. Melissa, some real escalation in the region today and real questions about what the status of the ceasefire is after attacks were reported in the UAE and in the Strait of Hormuz. So President Trump, about mid-afternoon, confirming that Iran had taken some shots at unrelated nations, including a South Korean cargo ship. This came after he announced last night that the U.S. would be helping guide neutral ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

2:40The president said the U.S. had, in exchange, shot down seven small Iranian boats, but that other than the South Korean ship, there had been no other damage going through the strait. So that served to sort of downplay tensions over activity in the strait. But separately, the UAE also reporting today, as you mentioned, it had intercepted missiles fired from Iran and that its air defense systems were fending off Iranian attacks of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and of drones. It was the first time the UAE activated its missile alert system since the ceasefire was struck just a little under a month ago, April 8th.

3:12That took effect. Now, the White House today did not respond to any questions as to whether the U.S. considered any of this a violation of that ceasefire. And President Trump did not address that in his post or in a public appearance. He just wrapped up. But Emirati officials did tell our colleagues at MSNOW that it was preparing a severe retaliatory response toward Iran. The biggest question for now, though, is whether the U.S. will look to respond as well. Melissa?

3:35Tim Seymour:Megan, thank you. Megan Casella. We cited the rise in the price of diesel compared to a year ago. It is worth noting, too, AAA says the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is$4.46. sense. And I know we say, oh, the U.S. consumer is not as dependent on the price of gasoline, the price of energy, et cetera. At the same time, yields care because yields are moving higher along with. I was going to say, are bond markets picking up what equity markets don't want? And equity markets will pick up what the bond market's doing. And so I understand and Carter's going to rightly point out that we've been in a trading range for a long time.

4:08But this is the top end of the trading range. And there's no question to me that we're in a situation where you definitely have concern and bond markets are pricing this in. We've seen the correlation between oil prices and bond yields. You can make an argument these are highest gas prices ever. Highest gas prices ever outside of a small period in 22. This is a case where you can't just say no big deal. And when the energy companies themselves are telling us you haven't seen nothing yet. And supposedly ushering a couple ships through the straits is exactly what's triggering absolutely not a ceasefire.

4:42So equities are doing a fantastic job because we've had an even better than expected earning season. You've had mega cap tech stocks lead the way. It brings up the indices. It erases a lot of bad news that we had seen all last fall. But it's hard to feel like we've made any progress. Oil prices continue to set new closing highs, and we know that that's higher for longer.

5:04Tim Seymour:I mean, 105 on WTI is pretty close to the Iran conflict era high on WTI. So even though equity markets want to believe that the end is closer, the oil markets are not telling us that. Right. At this point. Well, also, this sort of makes me wonder. I don't know what you would call this, skirmishes or not. Does that get the issue of whether or not this war needs to go before Congress again? You know, we're on this 60-day clock. But if we're at a stalemate, they're sort of using the ceasefire stalemate as a timeout. Right, right. I don't understand how it works, actually. Does that restart the clock?

5:42Does this then become an issue for Congress? I don't know. But I wonder if that is sort of that's the language we hear is very, you know, calm. I don't know if that's what that's about. I don't know. But but I mean, the move in oil is is real. Yeah. Right. So I know Tim's point you were talking about a lot has been made about energy as a part of the overall spend now is much smaller. But the market has ignored it until now. The VIX had a 16 handle on Friday. I feel like this is a short-term pause. We've made just a huge, huge run up. Volatility has come way down, and yet oil is high. And still, things could go wrong.

6:22I'm getting a little more defensive. I'm always long, though. Things go terrible. I'll be long.

6:28Tim Seymour:Oil is higher. Relatively, yields are at the top end of the range. And we're already through the bulk of earnings season. So the catalysts on the horizon are kind of limited at this point. Look, we've gotten extraordinary numbers, and the equity market is now. In fact, if you listen to Mike Wilson over at Morgan Stanley, I hear they've kind of raised 26 by another 3 percent. They've raised the 12-month rolling by another 4 percent. I mean, you have a dynamic here where, as we've said, the market multiple may be coming down a little bit. It's certainly not going back to the old highs because earnings are supporting this.

7:02I find it hard to believe also, and I look at the impact even on some of the copper companies. So Freeport, Southern Copper. I mean, these stocks are down 20 percent in 10 sessions. So there's certain parts of this that should be performing. In other words, you would think materials overall would be rallying aggressively. Obviously, gold is selling off on the other side of this. So I think there is growth concern on the other side somewhere.

7:25Tim Seymour:Carter, what's your take on all this? And especially, you know, yields being at the top end of that range that you talk about. Yeah, you can feel the tension, even though not much has happened, how it could quickly sort of get out of control. I mean, a couple of things stood out in my mind today. Basically, one, of course, the move in energy you would think would be a lot more. I mean, it's obviously the only sector that's up on the day, but big names like Exxon up maybe 50, 60 basis points. Schlumberger down. Baker Hughes down, second biggest in the OIH. So fairly muted response to the one area that is the most sensitive, obviously, to the move in crude.

8:04And to the point about yields, I mean, we continue to just be here. But as you in your question and Tim pointing out earlier, we are at the top of the range where it wouldn't take much to sort of set the apple cart in the wrong direction and get you. I mean, put it this way, the market is not ready, I don't believe. And I think most would agree with getting into the five and a half and higher yields on for the for the 10 years. And we're not there yet, but it wouldn't take much.

8:33Tim Seymour:And the 30 years above five. Yeah. Well, yes. But that's not sure. And we have we have Treasury refunding this week. So we were going to hear more. There was a time, you know, a year ago, really a year and a half ago, especially when there was a lot of pressure on the Treasury market because of just concerns around Liberation Day, that those TRA announcements were a big deal. And I think the size of what needs to be refunded, we should not lose sight of that. I think to that point there, they're going on the short end, right? Right. Yeah. As much as they can. As much as they can. Right. Yeah. I know it's temporary Band-Aid.

9:06Many administrations of either party have done that. I think that's what we'll see. Yeah.

9:11Tim Seymour:But it feels at this point like the markets want to believe that AI could be the salve for them. I mean, it could be the real driver, could paper over any sort of weakness. It was the salve. Look at that. I mean, it was enormous. And it still is with the S &P 500, 7200. But at some point, you know, you have to look through like the sort of papering over sort of the slower areas of growth. And if you took AI away, what GDP growth would actually be, what capex spending would actually be, it would be a much different picture. I think we're going to start to see that picture. May is a month when you see a lot of retailers report.

9:46Tim Seymour:Yes. And we haven't seen that yet. And I think, sadly, we're going to have some trouble there. I just think on a day like today, let's not forget where we closed on Friday. And this is a 21 percent move on the Nasdaq, a 21 percent move off the bottom in 32 sessions or something like that. All-time highs. All-time highs people didn't expect. So with fantastic earnings and not an economic impact, and I know we want to all call that Armageddon that will come with higher oil prices, but right now all we're hearing from everyone is that their businesses are strong. That's true. For more on how retail traders are navigating the market volatility, Charles Schwab's head of trading services, James Castulius, joins us now.

10:27Tim Seymour:James, great to have you with us. Great to be here. What is the pulse at this point of the retail investor? right? I mean, I know that you had a recent survey out and it showed that investors are getting less bullish, but that was through the end of March. And it feels like a lot has changed since the end of March. And so what is sort of your on the ground, like the current pulse? Yeah, it certainly has. I think bullishness is absolutely waning, but confidence is still up. And I think what we're seeing is super high levels of engagement from retail as well. So last quarter, you know, 10 million plus trades a day, another quarter of a million plus new accounts and over 550 million digital logins.

11:02So the bullishness is waning. Historically, that would have meant engagement was waning also. But we're not seeing any signs of engagement slowing down from retail clients. And they're also feeling confident, more confident this quarter than they were last quarter in their decisions. And that's seemingly antithetical historically. In a bearish market, retail technically gets less confident. But I think they're doing a lot with buying the dip and they're doing a lot with selling the rip that doesn't get, I don't think, as much conversation as the buying the rip piece does. And so they're taking risk off the table when things are moving up.

11:36Tim Seymour:How do you measure confidence? Is that just through survey work or is that by size of the trade? So we do both. We do confidence work through a sentiment survey, and then we have the Schwab Trading Activity Index that measures their actual trading activity. And that looks at size of trades. That looks at leverage they may be using to place trades. That looks at all of it. Have you seen their focus change away from MAG7? And where is it now? Yeah. So I think retail is moving sort of sector by sector. So it was all tech all the time, forever. You're still going to see the mag sevens as the most traded, both on the sell side and on the buy side.

12:10But we've seen migrations into metals. We've seen migrations into energy. We've seen some migrations into retail. And so as people have gotten a little bit more defensive, they've moved a little bit more into utilities and into consumer staples as well. James, how about the size of the consumer or the retail traders balance sheet? So we talk about this in the hedge fund community all the time and not to over kind of get technical on it. But using leverage, using margin, sometimes it can really drift higher in bullish markets. People kind of forget about that. And suddenly a little bit of leverage goes a long way and accentuates downside.

12:41And it sounds like a group that largely has fared well and is feeling relatively confident here. What's the size of the retail traders balance sheet right now? Yeah, we are seeing more trading, but we are seeing smaller trades. Notional values are down in the derivative space. Contract per trade is down a little bit. And in talking to our clients, they're saying, listen, I want to be active in this market. I want to be engaged, but I don't want to go too big on any one position or too big on any one strategy. We're also seeing a lot of risk off strategies as well. So we're seeing a lot of covered calls.

13:13We're seeing a lot of maybe put buying to ultimately or I'm sorry, put selling to ultimately want to get into a position that may be a little bit of a lower price, but without committing the full amount up front. And a lot of the rise we see sort of overall in the margin book, a lot of that is in the hedge-long short space. So not the big sort of increase in overall leverage that we saw maybe since back in Liberation Day in April.

13:38Tim Seymour:What are you seeing in cash balances? I mean, we hear, I hear at least a lot, that the reason why the markets can go higher is because there's so much cash on the sidelines, including from the retail investor. Is that what you're seeing? Retail investors have a lot of dry powder. And they are deploying it, though, selectively and I think intelligently. If you think about certain things like using options as stock replacement strategies, that's going to obviously conserve a cash position. And then we see clients who are, you know, still have decent sized cash positions in what we would call investing cash in purchase money funds, sort of maybe waiting for the market to come down a bit.

14:14Obviously, you know, three weeks in a row, all time highs in the S &P, probably a little bit more cash deployed. And then we'll say once it gets to where they perceive to be the top, you'll see some selling and then maybe some cash holdings for a little while.

14:27Tim Seymour:Do you notice any sort of correlation or relationship with rising energy prices and the amount of trading? You would think there would probably be a negative correlation. Obviously, we've seen since the conflict in the Middle East, a huge spike in energy prices and trading has continued to go up. So it actually I mean, the beta would be high. I don't think it's actually a true correlation. I think people are trading more because of opportunities that they see in the markets. But they're not not trading because gas prices are higher. All right. James, be interesting to see what they say in about a month.

15:01Tim Seymour:Amen. James Castulius of Schwab. Interesting read there in terms of getting more conservative. I mean, as this conflict goes on. Yeah, I'm not surprised. When I hear buy the dip, sell the rips, you know, this is what guys that are getting two and 20 are paid to do. And no, I salute. And as we've said, we've seen a retail trader community and a retail investor community that that is so different in terms of their approach to having patience and being well informed and doing the work. They're not only watching Fast Money, but they don't feel like they have to move on big times out there. And so I think energy stocks, for the reasons that the fundamentals that we just talked about and the hire for longer, they were better run coming into this.

15:44I think retail wants to own more energy, and I think they realize that they've been underway. You know, one thing that's interesting when he was talking about the retail trader there, I was thinking about Robinhood, and they showed a decline or lower than, I guess, the street expectations were. And I wonder if that—I would have thought he would see that as well. But no, it's a different— Different customer base, perhaps? It is a different customer base, yes.

16:08Tim Seymour:Meantime, the White House looking at potential new checks on AI. Kate Rooney confirms the administration is considering vetting new models before they are released. Kate's got more on that. I don't know how that would work. It's an interesting plan, Kate. Yeah, Mel, that's what I'm hearing, at least from a source close to this situation. The U.S. government, from what I'm hearing again, is considering a new working group on AI. So it would bring together tech executives, government officials to look into possible procedures for releasing some of the most powerful AI models. One plan being floated is a formal review process or a possible executive order.

16:42New York Times was first to report these details today. A White House official, I should say, telling CNBC that any policy announcement will come directly from the president. Any discussion about potential executive orders is speculation. I did also reach out to OpenAI and Anthropic. No comment yet, guys. And one person that I did talk to said it is part of a move by the White House to try and get more visibility in advance of some of these models being released, especially for the most capable models. We think about what's gone on with Mythos and the capabilities in cybersecurity. I'm also told the government has been strongly encouraging some of these tech companies and AI labs to participate in these types of partnerships with the U.S.

17:21I mentioned Mythos. That has really caught the attention of the U.S. government and CEOs out there for its cybersecurity capabilities. Another headline just crossing, Mel, that I do want to bring you, the Wall Street Journal now reporting that Anthropic, speaking of Mythos, and the payment giant FIS are now building an AI agent to help banks police financial crimes. That is the latest AI banking partnership to develop new tools for Wall Street Mail. I think FIS shares, if I'm not mistaken, were higher on that news. Back over to you.

17:49Tim Seymour:Very interesting. Kate, just going back to Mythos, I mean, is the thinking perhaps there that they would have caught Mythos in some way? I mean, what is the plan if something doesn't pass the vetting? Would they throttle the model? Would they limit the capabilities? I mean, it's puzzling to me. Yeah. Reading between the lines, Mel, and this is one person who's confirming that it is happening. And some of the details, I think, are still sparse. A lot of the reporting from The Times is coming out of Washington, D.C. But the idea here is that Mythos was released to a small group of people. Going forward, They want visibility.

18:24They want a heads up and to be able to give it the thumbs up to go out there. But, you know, you have to think of, you know, there's the government side and there's the technical side of the people that are releasing this. They would have to come to an agreement. The issue here is speed. You know, one of the sort of specters in this entire industry has been China and the risk from China and wanting to keep ahead. And so the U.S. government has said repeatedly, we don't want to lose to China. We want to make sure we're not hampering innovation and that we're able to let these companies move quickly.

18:50But at the same time, they don't want a big cybersecurity issue on their hands. They want to make sure they're not actually letting things out in the public. They're dangerous. So it's a fine line. And I think that is still very much being worked out from what I'm hearing, Mel.

19:03Tim Seymour:Yeah, that's a tough balance. Kate, thanks. Kate Rooney. I don't know, Karen, what do you make of that? I mean, I don't know. I feel like something could go wrong. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and what if there's disagreement? it. You know, does everyone have to agree before you could send something out? I don't know. Well, and logistically how that would work. It's a little ironic that we're referencing China because this feels a little bit Chinese. I mean, you know, can we vet the AI model and make sure it fits the state needs? And if it doesn't, we'll make sure that it does. So I don't know. It's concerning.

19:40And I think we all recognize that we're in a new era where there could be a need to police financial crime activity. And the computers are going to be a step ahead of the cyber. But this is a place where how much regulation is too much regulation? I don't know.

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19:58Tim Seymour:Coming up, all the after hours action. The details and numbers moving Palantir, Paramount, Pinterest, and more. But first, a supply chain drain for the transport trade. How Amazon is expanding its logistics network and why it's weighing on names like UPS and FedEx. Do not go anywhere fast when he's back in two.

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21:41Market Update podcast or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts.

21:49Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money UPS and FedEx. Plunging today after Amazon announced it will open up its supply chain and logistics networks to other businesses via Amazon supply chain services. The new initiative has already inked deals with names like Procter & Gamble, 3M, American Eagle Outfitters, and more. Those companies will now have access to Amazon's 100 plus cargo planes and its massive network of warehouses. Andy Jassy is speaking to our Jim Cramer earlier today. Saying transports aren't the only industry. There are billions of people around the world with no broadband connectivity, and there are many, many thousands of companies and government entities that want visibility into those assets where they can't get them.

22:30There's going to be more than one successful company. I mean, there are going to be multiple. Now, I think when we get our constellation up, And we have, you know, about 300 satellites that we've launched with 20 more launches coming this year and 30 more launches coming next year. But when we have our constellation up, they're really going to only be two companies with this leading edge technology.

22:52Tim Seymour:So how bad is it? Is it as bad as the declines in UPS and FedEx? I think it is. I mean, I'm trying to think what you know, what are some bad headlines you could wake up to? This would be one of them if you're if you're the CEO of either FedEx or UPS. They're an enormous competitor. You know, it's it's I think there could be a lot more to it. It's interesting as an Amazon shareholder, you know, the retail business, the logistic business is sort of a sideshow now relative to AWS. But this is an enormous, enormous business. And one thing about Amazon, they know how to scale in a huge way. So I don't own FedEx or UPS.

23:29I wouldn't start today. It's not the headline you want to hear, especially at a time when FedEx and UPS have been about margin accretion, UPS especially. They're not going to spend the way Amazon has and will. And Amazon's already devoted a ton of CapEx and focus on this. This is what Amazon does. So while we've been getting used to UPS actually moving on in a world without Amazon, to their benefit, ultimately, although it's been part of, I think, a reassessment. I know the other part about today in the transport space, though, it's not just this headline. It's it's what's going on with energy prices.

24:05It's there's no question. I mean, obviously, the airline component of the transport index don't like it. The rails had an incredible earnings season for the most part. And I think some of this is just a little bit of a give back. So let's you know, overall, the group, I think, had reasons to be selling off as well.

24:22Tim Seymour:Carter, I don't know if you want to take from the transport side or the Amazon side. Well, just trying to tackle all of it. But I mean, the main subject being these two that are under pressure based on prospective news and change in the landscape. UPS has been obviously the one that's been the idiosyncratic problem, obviously down some 60 % from its highs of two years ago and not much above its own COVID low, which is quite remarkable. FedEx, different story. But either way, I think one has to, and this is always the idea, to respect price action. The dropping and gapping in both stocks, news related or not, is a negative.

24:58They're dropping and gapping on very heavy volume. And if one at a minimum is long, one should take measures.

25:04Tim Seymour:All right. You can catch Jim's full exclusive interview with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Mad Money, at the top of the hour. Coming up, shares of Palantir on the move after reporting the details and numbers out of the latest quarter. Next, you're watching Fast Money live from the Nasdaq Market Site in Times Square. Talk right after this.

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26:20Tim Seymour:Yeah, good. Annual driver screenings from Uber. One more way Uber is putting safety at every turn. Learn more at uber.com slash safety. This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Join host Keith Lansford for this information-packed daily market preview delivered in 10 minutes or less, including projected stock updates, monetary policy decisions, and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash marketupdatepodcast or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts.

26:59Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. Earnings alert on Palantir, the software stock beating top and bottom line estimates. Shares, though, are up just barely. That's the call kicked off at the top of the hour. Seema Modi joins us here on set with the very latest. Almost a head scratcher, how little the stock is moving, given its history of moving big and given the report. It really is, Melissa. that we've been on the call. And what's clear is that as the Department of Defense continues to lean into technology, Palantir is emerging as a clear winner. And that's clear from the company's guidance raise. Alex Karp telling CNBC he plans to grow sales 100 % next year and that the company is doing it with less people, adding we have more free cash flow this year than revenue last year.

27:37And with the war ongoing, it's incredibly busy. Karp sharing, quote, I just am in the trenches here building Palantir. I barely go out. Now as to why the stock perhaps is not fully reflecting Palantir's growth story. Karp said the market is off and off by six to eight months. It's not off by six to eight years, adding, quote, I don't think there will be a disconnect very much longer. He also went on to talk about the large language models, calling them commodities and said Palantir remains agnostic and that it can plug and play any in and out of its platform. He adds, though we are not agnostic to leaving soldiers on the battlefield, we will use whatever technology is available.

28:15We've been watching shares move just fractually here after hours. Melissa, one thing to also mention is while government did grow, commercial also grew by 133 percent year over year. But the street was expecting 137 percent year over year growth. So a slight miss on that front.

28:31Tim Seymour:He seems to be calling for the stock to go higher, though. I mean, you read between the lines and that was the message. Oh, absolutely. That's been one of the challenges for Palantir. even going into this report, is distinguishing the company from the broader software displacement fears. While it is a company that primarily sells its technology to defense contractors, it is, as in a day, a software company. It is in the IGV software ETF. So that key distinction is what the company has been trying to do with this very strong report. And these numbers, we'll see if it starts to resonate. Yep. Seema, thank you.

29:02Tim Seymour:Seema Modi, what did you make of the quarter? I think the quarter was actually excellent. The commercial growth, as Seema pointed out, triple digits. And in some sense, I think the analysts, the market is more pivoted towards that. We know that the U.S. government opportunity, the Maven deal, USDA, we're hearing about a couple of these other things that are big, big opportunities. I think they stay as big as always. The thing is, I just I can't chase this one here. What makes me feel best about it is this one actually was. and Carter may have a view, the price action during the software route, I thought was better than I would have expected for this kind of a high flyer.

29:39And I think software trades very well over the last couple of days. Look at Oracle. This one is just on valuation, too expensive for me. I know I could have said that so many, you know, 100 points ago, but I don't know. I still, it's not for me. Good quarter, though. Interestingly, the straddle, the 146 straddle at 14 bucks, which is expensive. And tomorrow, or for whatever, May 8th, it would go to zero. That would be a good trade. I didn't have that on.

30:08Tim Seymour:Carter, does it look like this one can escape IGB, or will it trade along with? Well, it's surely on its own. I mean, with great reward comes great risk. We know that, I mean, just to put it in context, Palantir, in the 2022 bear market where the S &P dropped 27%, the Qs dropped 30%, it dropped 87%. We know that in the tariff kerfuffle, it lost 46 % in a matter of weeks. We know that it's down right now 41 % from its highs of October. But it also, one could say, it came from 5, 6 on the lows of the bear market three years ago to 200. Meaning, you know, you get sort of what one anticipates when you get something that can win this much.

30:49It also has setbacks that are epic and major. The real question structurally, of course, is this, and the chart really defines it, a bullish two-bearish reversal sell. A great and important advance that has lost its way, uptrend no longer, and the question, does it have downside risk? That's my hunch. If I were long, I would trim, exit altogether, sell calls, take some measures.

31:12Tim Seymour:Yeah. The conference call is ongoing, and the stock is now down by about 1.1%, so it has moved in just the past few minutes. We'll keep an eye on that one. Coming up, the sounds and sights from the Milton Conference in Beverly Hills. We'll hear from TCW Group CEO Katie Koch about where she sees the market heading next and where she is finding opportunity in the volatility. Fast Money is back in two.

31:36Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. Stocks seeing losses to kick off the week. The Dow falling 557 points. The S &P down four-tenths of a percent. The Nasdaq with a small loss down two-tenths of a percent. Bitcoin breaking above the$80 ,000 mark for the first time since January after lawmakers reached an agreement on the Clarity Act, new language would preserve stablecoin reward programs if used to incentivize things like trading and staking. And some more after-hours action shares a paramount beating estimates on the top and the bottom lines. Pinterest surging after its own earnings beat. Vertex Pharma missing revenue estimates on semi-topping estimates and posting better-than-expected guidance.

32:10Tim Seymour:And Duolingo falling as monthly active users came in below estimates. Let's head now to the Milken Global Conference in California. of CNBC's Sarah Eisen. This is TCW Group CEO Katie Koch in a first on CNBC interview. Sarah, take it away. Thank you so much, Melissa. Yes, here with all the heavy hitters in the markets. Joining me is Katie Koch. She's head of Trust Company of the West, one of the biggest bond investors in the country. It's great to have you here. Thank you for having me. And I did want to start on private credit because I remember at this conference, three years ago, we were on stage together and you were out there saying, private credit's getting frothy.

32:46Everybody's jumping into this. I mean, that was like the golden era where everyone was in. So now that we're really starting to see a cycle here, you must not be surprised. What do you think is happening? Yeah, we're not surprised to see a cycle. We saw cracks previously and were vocal about that. And now we see a lot of opportunities. So it's important to know at TCW, we manage credit across both public and private markets. And in private credit, just for context here, we've done it for 26 years. We've maintained the same discipline. So three to four times leverage. The market's much higher than that.

33:19We have covenants. We have documentation. We say no a lot. We maintain pricing discipline. So you don't have any problems. So we, of course, this is leverage for dead. So there's always problems. But for an example, we don't have any software exposure. And people ask us like a lot. Why is that? Why did you avoid it? Everybody else seems to. And it's not because we predicted the, how do we say that? Saspocalypse. Saspocalypse. Is that how we say it? Yeah, I guess. Saspocalypse. We did not predict that. But we just maintained the same discipline for 26 years. And if you did that, you would have not made loans to those companies or they wouldn't have wanted your money because it was expensive with a lot of strings attached.

33:50And that has led us always to have highly differentiated exposure and to right now not have software exposure. And just one other thing I wanted to say on that in terms of, you know, what what did we see? I said it before. A lot of money was being put to work. There was a lack of discipline and we did get sector concentration. That's probably not something we want in leveraged finance, because in leveraged finance, something is always going to go wrong and always go sideways. You have to be able to work out of those situations, have the documents, have the experience to work out. You never want those all concentrated into one sector.

34:23And I think that's going to be a learning from this is to maintain discipline and also maintain better portfolio. So now that it's getting washed out, is it a buying opportunity? We absolutely think that there is tremendous opportunity here because you're going to get better terms at better returns. This is the time when everyone's heading for the exit. in our view that people should be entering the asset class. And in two specific areas, new vintage private credit shouldn't be a vintage sensitive asset class. But now that people are retreating, you are going to get the opportunity for better returns.

34:56And this could be actually the first distress cycle in this asset class, really since the global financial crisis. And we see a huge amount of demand in the distress space for private credit. And we think that's going to be a great opportunity to buy. Yeah, absolutely. So it's going to get worse and then better? Yeah, I think if, well, first of all, if you've maintained discipline through this whole period, your portfolio is going to be able to navigate this well. What you're going to have is a lot of manager differentiation. And we really haven't had that in private credit before because rates were zero, it was easy to lend money, and people weren't differentiated.

35:31Now we're going to have an environment of differentiation. And obviously we think we'll be on the right side of that, and we're excited to deliver for our existing clients on that. And then new vintages should have higher return opportunities. And again, there's not going to be an opportunity in distress for private credits. Different than Q-SIP liquid distress. This is going into private credit, senior secure for lending. And you get a PIC component. You get a high coupon, take warrants on the equity. This could have returns, in our view, that not only out-returns the credit markets broadly, but also out-returns private equity.

36:03Okay, I want to ask you about the public market, too, because you guys are also huge in the bond market there. And just, I mean, the equity market, the bond market, do you think it's priced correctly given, you know, oil prices have surged and there's increased geopolitical risk? There is. And we are value managers. So our observation would be, given how much current negative news flow is out there and potential for future disruption, a lot of which is really outside of our control in the near term, there is absolutely going to be more moments of volatility and dislocation ahead. It would not be our view that equity risk premiums should be negative right now, which they are, and that credit spread should be as tight as they are.

36:47So across all of our... I think equities are overvalued. I do. We do writ large. There are parts of the equity market where we see long-term opportunity, AI, not the index. Some of that is overextended, but in the companies that are actually going to use that to transform their business models, lots of opportunities there. And we're invested in that in one of our ETFs, AIFD, and in the power transformation that is going to support AI and the electrification of everything. So not only AI, but also the fact that we are electrifying everything with vehicles and that we're bringing some of this manufacturing home.

37:20That is still a great opportunity in the equity market. But overall, for equity risk premiums to be negative at this point, I mean, that should give people some pause and some concern in our view. And being active and selective, important there. And in the bond market, we are overweight. agency MBS where we see better value and good liquidity. We're underweight credit. And we think the market's going to give us the dislocation opportunity to lean in and buy more credit. We're actually half our pure weight in credit and very underweight the benchmark. And our view in this world of probabilities that we live in is that we're going to be able to get be given the opportunity to lean in and do more in credit.

37:55And in the private credit side, we're going to be out there deploying when other people aren't. Yeah. Well, that's why we love to talk to you. A lot of contrarian ideas there. And thank you for putting the view out, both on public and private credit, and what you guys are doing. I always love talking to you, but it's my favorite to talk to you when we're in my hometown and not on the road somewhere exotic around the world. I know, last time was Riyadh. I hope we get back there for a lot of reasons. Land of the big fund fund managers. Katie, thank you. Katie Koch. It's always a pleasure. I hope we get back there too this year.

38:26That's Katie Koch, TCW CEO. Back over to you, Melissa.

38:29Tim Seymour:Sarah, thanks. Sarah Eisen with Katie Pekach. A lot to unpack there. I don't know if that's good news in terms of there's a buyer out there for a lot of these assets. There's a buyer. So there's two things. There's sort of, all right, what happens to the portfolio that's existing? And then what happens to the business right now? It's changing where the businesses, there's more opportunities, the better pricing. All those are good things. You know, I'm talking my book. I'm long private credit. Yes. Yes, you are. Yes, I am. Well, I think what's interesting is this is a chance for people that are being opportunistic to actually go in and buy private credit.

39:04I thought the story about the public credit side was interesting, like not that interested, looking a little concerned about where we are in a credit cycle, which ultimately for equity folks, that's not going to go well. If you look at the KKRs, the Blackstones, even the Owls, those have all kind of, you know, the charts are interesting. And again, we've got a guy that can probably comment on that. But, you know, Al, to me, is the one everyone is watching. And it's now back above the 50.

39:30Tim Seymour:Hey, guy who can comment on charts. Who's that guy? Who would that be? Anyway, everyone's entitled to have a judgment on the price action. But if you want mine, I concur. Tim is making a point that they have stabilized. And in fact, each has this slight look of a curling up circumstance. And I would embrace them as speculative longs. All right. Coming up, a box office bonanza for The Devil Wears Prada sequel. How the film delivered one of this year's biggest debuts and how legendary film producer Wendy Feinerman brings the magic to the silver screen. She will join us next when Fast Money returns.

40:13Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. It was a blockbuster weekend for The Devil Wears Prada 2, the highly anticipated sequel, making its theatrical debut 20 years after the original with its star-studded cast, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci. The film strut its way to number one at the box office worldwide with$234 million in ticket sales, beating out the Michael Jackson biopic and the Super Mario Galaxy movie. Joining us on set is the film's producer, Academy Award winner, Wendy Fyreman. And let's clap her in. Let's clap her in. She's family. She's Hollywood royalty. Otherwise known as Karen's sister.

40:49Tim Seymour:And I'm known as Wendy's sister. Exactly, exactly. One extraordinary opening. Today is May 4th, so everybody's saying, may the 4th be with you because of Star Wars. Well, you just did. I know, I know, I know. I'm embarrassed. Trekkie. But actually, a film like Devil Wears Prada, I mean, it's remarkable in that you think it's a huge budget film because it did so well. And it's actually not. It's not a huge budget film in terms of what usually would be is what the beginning of summer. And what we don't realize is we look at things globally now. The film business is globally. It used to be what was released here, and then it would be released internationally later.

41:25But globally, this is most of the world's Memorial Day. For some of the world, it was on Friday. It was off, and for some of the world, Monday today is off. And usually, the movies that kick off this kind of weekend are what I like to refer to as cape movies. They're super power, you know, people with massive talents and that are going to jump and dive and do everything. And they're not our kind of cape movies where you take off the cape and you're more powerful. And yet these women in Prada all have super power. They have super power. So it's the first time I, you know, there's so many different numbers, but the first time over a decade where a movie like this has started the summer season.

42:10Tim Seymour:We were talking over the weekend about the fantastic Weekend box office. And you're saying it sort of brings out people who saw it 20 years ago. I mean, I can remember watching it back then. And people are going back to the theaters. And it's the perfect movie, I think, for this time where people want to stay away from politics. You don't want something political. You don't want something violent. You don't want this is it. I've gotten so much feedback in such a positive way of this is like what we need right now. We need to escape. We just need to be entertained. We just want to be having a good time and not having to think about it.

42:48And they also want to walk away and feel like enlightened and feel like better and not feel worse. And just be a little happy. And the other thing that's amazing is the amount of people that is just what you said, Melissa, who went. I mean, there was a group of people from, you know, Boston, friends of mine. Thirty women went together. You know, somebody who's been on the show many times, a really high-powered woman on Wall Street, said, I'm going with the person I saw 20 years ago. We are going together. Families are going. Sisters are going. And the other thing is, and it's not just here, all over the world, people are dressing up.

43:25It's become an event. They're wearing red shoes. They're wearing makeup. They're looking like different characters. They're saying certain lines. So it's become an event versus just going to the movies. And, you know, I'm very happy about that right now because I think we're giving people some relief.

43:42Tim Seymour:You are such an extraordinary film producer. But how tough is the movie business, even for somebody like you these days? The movie business is probably the most challenging, at least in my career, I've ever seen. And I think probably for anybody who's ever been in it. And, you know, aside from the massive change in markets and the way people view things and streaming costs, you know, we had the pandemic. People really kind of never fully came back to those numbers. Once in a while, we'll get to a weekend where we'll look at it and say almost back. It's like pre-pandemic numbers. And then we had the writers and the actors strike and they were all back to back.

44:25And our pipeline still has been effective because of that. And on top of it, we've had, you know, we'll see if they're all proof. We've had a real reduction of the amount of studios that are, you know, supporting, producing, you know, and financing films. And they're finding it a lot more financially, you know, kind of diligent to do it in other ways. And that may be streaming. That may be direct to video. That may be only releasing the movie for a week. And people are forgetting that the essence of people do want to go be entertained. They want to go get out of their house. But the safer way to do it, because the amount of costs that are involved with the theatrical release, is let's play the safe bet.

45:16Let's let them watch it at home. Wendy, first of all, congrats. It's great to have you here. And I'm sure Andy Sachs is a Fast Money fan. Is that correct? Andy Sachs is a fast money fan and an Arsenal fan. Okay. So it's a global industry, as you talked about. Global sales were fantastic. Talk about Disney as a global partner here and distribution. And, you know, I mean, I just love to hear, you know, I mean, as a shareholder in Disney, too, kind of their role here. This is the first film that I've ever made with Disney. And I've got to tell you, never in my life have I seen a machine. I like to think of myself with the long career that I've had and different kind of products and branding and stunts that we've done.

45:53I'm looking out over Melissa's shoulder at some of the films I have. I might have some restaurants over there and some other things that we've done. They are a machine. There is something to be said for them. My hat is off to them. Any time I would look to think of an idea, because I really do enjoy the marketing part of it the most, because that's kind of sometimes where you can get free opportunities. You know, how do we find the synergy? Who do we put together? Whom? What do we do? They were already ahead of it. They have this machine that is fantastic. And, you know, on top of it, what they did, which really helped is and I didn't understand the whole process until you really go through the whole movie with them, because it's hard to see understanding how they have their partnerships until you come out.

46:39And I would be like their partnerships. All these partnerships are so important. and are the partnerships going to impair our filmmaking? You know, we all know that when you watch a movie or something, you go, oh, it's so obvious that so-and-so is paying the money to put in there. And they were so discreet with their partnerships, but the amount of financial support and advertising support that Disney commands is 200 % better than anybody else. I mean, they're just fantastic.

47:07Tim Seymour:Wendy, it was a privilege to have you here on set. Thank you so much for stopping by. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Easy woman. Happy 20, by the way. I'm 20. I heard they're 20 soon. Yeah, we're getting there. We're getting there. January. We're getting there. Wendy Feinerman. Thank you. More Fast Money in two.

47:26Tim Seymour:Welcome back to Fast Money. GameStop closing 10 % lower after the video game retailer made an unsolicited bid for eBay. The proposed$56 billion cash in stock deal is worth more than five times GameStop's market value. Cohen avoided specifics on how he plans to finance an acquisition, saying his company can issue stock to get the deal done. Sure, they can. Be very dilutive to shareholders at the same time. But yes, you can do that. That is a way. Well, that was an interesting interview. He was a bit combative, I think. I don't agree that he said it's in the document. It's not. If you're going to issue cash and stock, we know what cash is worth.

48:01We don't know what stock is worth. We don't know if it's a fixed ratio. We don't know if there's any collar. It would need a shareholder vote for sure. And so that part, you know, I think he needs to come out with more details of that. Also, do they have any advisors? I don't know. I found that that was one of the more curious interviews I've seen ever, maybe. Curious is one word that people have said to me. Well, there's other words. Yeah. But I wouldn't I mean, I wouldn't buy eBay on this, I think. No. And again, as Karen pointed out, I mean, how much stock is such an open issue here, especially when there's some speculation.

48:40There's just some concern about how much in this deal is triggered by his own cash position there. So I don't think either are interesting. And, you know, we've been watching GameStop do nothing for a long time with a fair amount of cash. But I this doesn't make suddenly the foundation of eBay's platform look any different than it did the day before. So nothing to do.

49:02Tim Seymour:Yeah. Carter, I don't know if you have any thoughts on the GameStop chart or maybe the eBay chart, because the eBay is actually a turnaround story that analysts were sort of getting excited on. Yeah, the comment we can always issue shares. It's a bit flippant, to say the least. But eBay's had a good steady uptrend. It's been performing well. And I would say of the two, it's the one that – but generally speaking, I'm with Tim. I mean, I would say stay on the sidelines for all of this. Yeah. I mean, it is – he kept saying. Now eBay is such a strong business, such a strong business. It really just makes you want to buy eBay yourself and not games off.

49:38Yes.

49:39Tim Seymour:Sort of an interesting sales pitch on his part. It is time now for the final trade. So let's go around the board. Carter Braxton Worth. Well, I like Apple here. After gapping up on earnings, it's filled that gap. Buy Apple. Karen. Yeah. So I know you had somewhat of a sell-off today. If you just, you know, look at a chart over the last six weeks, This was absolutely nothing. However, I feel like the market's still frothy. I want to buy some protection because I'm always on buying some spider puts. Tim. Well, you're a team player. I think you're playing hurt today. Yeah. I don't know. Five hours she's on the field today.

50:12There's no question. It's impressive. No I in the word Melissa. Disney. Nice to hear how the global prowess in the machine, as Wendy talked about. But they report tomorrow. I'm a shareholder.

50:22Tim Seymour:Thanks for watching Fast Money. See you tomorrow on Swapbox. Mad Money with Jim Primer 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.

50:55To view the full Fast Money Disclaimer, please visit cnbc.com forward slash Fast Money Disclaimer.

51:25Or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts.

From the publisher

Oil prices jumping on the latest developments out of the Middle East. How the energy spikes are impacting already high gas prices, and the impact it’s having on equities as stocks pull back from record highs. Plus, all the after-hours action in shares of Palantir & Paramount, clarity on Clarity helps fuel a crypto jump, and how a legendary Hollywood producer brings the magic to the silver screen as “The Devil Wears Prada 2” tops the box office this weekend.  

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