10AM Hour: Walmart CFO on Earnings, California AG on Paramount-Warner Brothers Discovery Deal & Meta Child Safety Trial 8/20/26

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Good Thursday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Sara Eisen with Carl Quintanilla and David Faber. We are live as always from Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Huge show coming your way, including an exclusive interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, as yields turn higher despite the Treasury Department's intervention. Plus, we've got a first on CNBC interview with Walmart CFO, John David Rainey, as that stock pulls back hard on concerns about US sales. Also ahead, a can't miss exclusive conversation with the St. Louis Fed President, Alberto Mussolam, who says the Fed should have raised rates at its last meeting. We are joined by California Attorney General Bob Bonta to talk about the Meta Trial, the antitrust lawsuit aiming to block Paramount's acquisition of Warner Brothers. All of those heavy hitters coming up on the show.

Carl Quintanilla (1:49)

Some decent numbers this morning out of Philly Fed and claims. Let's get some LEI too with Rick Santelli-Perrick.

Rick Santelli (1:56)

Good morning, Carl. Yes, these are July REIT on LEI, Leading Economic Indicators. Expected up one-tenth of a percent. Comes in better, up two-tenths. Last month, a one-tenth positive revision, but still in negative territory from minus two-tenths to minus one-tenth. July, seventh month, that means we now have four positive REITs on LEI and three negative REITs, so we're in the majority. That hasn't happened much in the past. It's been quite negative. And the up two-tenths, well, that equals where we were in April to find a higher number. It's the high of the year at three-tenths, and that was in February. And indeed, interest rates are going up, but maybe they would have been up further if it wasn't for that announcement, no actual purchases of bonds, tens, twenties or thirties yesterday by the Treasury Secretary. Just look at the price of oil.

Sara, back to you.

Sara Eisen (2:48)

Okay, thank you very much, Rick Santelli. We will do so. And again, we're going to talk to Treasury Secretary Scott Besson just about an hour from now about this signal and about his announcement on, again, intervening when it comes to long-term debt. Look, I think it's worth the chart of the day today is the 30-year yield, because what happened is bonds rallied on the powerful signal that the Secretary and that the Treasury made yesterday. They said they were doing it to boost liquidity measures, but a lot of people took it as a sign that they're not OK with these high yields after the 30-year breached these high levels. What we're seeing today is a round trip. The rally has, they've faded the rally, given up, and we're back to levels from where we started. So that'll be a key question for the Secretary. As Rick said, there are a number of reasons for this. Number one, questions about just how much the Treasury can do when it comes to job owning or intervening to get yields lower, when the fundamentals really argue for higher yields. But one of the other reasons, as Rick noted, is crude. Look what's happening with oil prices today. And the president last night said that if they're going to pound Iran economically, and that's sort of the new strategy, it doesn't look like there's a deal to open up the Strait of Hormuz in sight, and obviously a nuclear deal as well. And now you have Brent crude oil back to $94 a barrel. We already have gas prices up to $4.10 in August. So inflationary concerns puts pressure on bonds, on treasuries. We've seen that relationship really since the start of the year with yields elevated for that reason, guys. And then also there's the fundamentals of the US fiscal backdrop, which also a lot of people say is the reason between the higher yields. And that's the public debt outstanding.

I mean, this is what we saw. We saw $40 trillion, that kind of ominous figure, last yesterday. And no matter where you turn, it's not just the US, it's globally, public debt is increasing. And that ultimately also is what could be behind the higher yields.