5 Things to Know Before the Opening Bell 6/23/25

0:01I'm Andrew Ross Sorkin, co-host of Squatbox along with Joe Kernan and Becky Quick and this is five Five things to know before today's opening bell. The full extent of damage to Iran's nuclear program unclear after U.S. strikes on the country over the weekend. But in a post on Truth Social last night, President Trump saying, quote, monumental damage had been done. Now, oil prices spiked when they opened for trading last night. Stock futures fell, but both of those moves have now reversed. Brent and WTI aren't moving much and stock futures are higher. Meantime, Tesla beginning its robo-taxi service in Austin, Texas, carrying paying customers and cars without human drivers.

0:38The company did have human safety monitors inside the cars. And Apple reportedly considering beefing up its AI technology with a big acquisition. Bloomberg says the company's executives have talked internally about bidding for perplexity AI, though they haven't contacted perplexity management. And the Oklahoma City Thunder beating the Indiana Pacers last night to win the 2025 NBA championship. The Thunder tied the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls for the third most wins in any season. I'm surprised you were a Pacer fit. Indiana. Oklahoma. I lived in both those places. We did have that discussion. But I was so impressed by what the Pacers did.

1:20They were the underdogs. OKC was phenomenal. I respect everything they did, but it was also awful to see. I mean, Oklahoma, all they really had were the Sooners before, right? I mean, it's nice to get a professional. Yeah, I'm thrilled. They were into it. I loved them when Kevin Durant was there. Those people were into it. They were. I'm happy for them. But it would have been nice if Halliburton hadn't gone out seven minutes in to see what really would have happened, right? To see that these two great teams play off the fine way. I saw all three. I saw three three-pointers, and then it went to bed.

1:53Incredible. What do you make of what I argue is the business problem the NBA is now facing? In terms of? The ratings. So the ratings for these finals have been an abomination. And there's an argument to be made. There was an interesting piece in the New York Post that said the headline literally was, this goes beyond small market problems, which is to say whether the interest in either the NBA and or every kid with their phone watching just the clips aren't engaging in a live way. It might be, but they don't have to sign it. The demise of the NBA has been greatly exaggerated about 10 times. Part of it, look, I think they should call more fouls in the playoffs to see some big players go down like they did and get these really terrible injuries that are probably going to keep them out for the next season.

2:41This was an Achilles thing that Halliburton went down with, too. So the second time that's happened in the playoff where you have one of your star players go down like that. I'd love to see them call some more fouls. And in the playoffs, they don't call as many fouls. It's almost like football. And that's terrible to see some of your key players go down. It used to be the quarterbacks you had to protect. I think in some cases you've got to protect these guys. Granted, they were non-contact. You've got to figure out a way to make the ratings work because the truth is, for example, by the way, our parent company just spent a fortune on NBA rights.

3:10And you can't make the math work. The Knicks went so far. If you don't have enough people watching. But I think it is a small market problem to some extent. That's what it was this time. Definitely. Remember what was happening when the Knicks were in it for so long. Timothy Chalamet and Ben Stiller. But even then, the ratings were not. If you go back and look, the ratings were not off the charts. It just didn't. I don't know what's going on. I'm not sure what's happening. But something is happening. It's an interesting proposition. It'd be good to play some defense during the regular season. That would help.

3:44I just want them to play defense during the All-Star game. Right. I was going to say, the All-Star game they have to fix. That's right. Running and gunning. We're going to be back later today with an all-new Squawk Pod, our daily podcast featuring the best of Squawk Box. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts and listen anytime.