11AM Hour: Exclusive Interviews with the CEOs of Biogen, Novartis & Visa 9/9/26

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Sara Eisen (1:05)

Good Wednesday morning and welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Sara Eisen coming to you live from the Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference in Boston.

Carl Quintanilla (1:12)

And I'm Carl Quintanilla live at Post Night of the New York Stock Exchange. Big show ahead today. We are moments away from the Treasury Department detailing the size of its buyback operation, something many on the street have been waiting for. We'll get you that news as soon as it crosses.

Sara Eisen (1:27)

Plus shares of Novartis not sharing big declines this week following three drug trial setbacks. We will discuss exclusively with CEO Vas Narasimhan. And then here with me in Boston, Biogen CEO Christopher Viehbacher, we'll discuss the biotech's experimental Alzheimer's drug and his current product pipeline.

Carl Quintanilla (1:46)

Market continues to chop through some of these historical headwinds of September. S&P is down about half a percent for the month to date. A little more weakness today. And especially sector-wise, energy is the only sector in the green right now, up about 1 percent, as we've got Brent Oil back above 101, VIX back above 16

Joining us here at Post9 this morning is Man Group Chief Market Strategist Christina Hooper, talk about some of the seasonal challenges, which you've been kind of attuned to for the past several months. What do you make of the action so far this month, post-Labor Day at least?

Christina Hooper (2:19)

So, you know, I have expected this for some time. I think it's a long time coming, but markets had to really believe that the war in Iran would last longer than just a few months. And so I think there's just a reality check sort of coursing through the stock market right now in terms of anticipating that inflation is going to be higher for longer and that this environment is quite different than where we were just a few months ago.

Carl Quintanilla (2:47)

Does mid-term election risk, is that part of the equation here?

Christina Hooper (2:50)

I don't think that's factoring in very much because there's so much else to worry about.

Because, let's face it, oil is top of mind. It's not just gas prices at the pump, of course, it's diesel prices. And it is concerned that now that we've had higher, once we have higher gas and diesel long enough, then it courses through the system. And, of course, that can impact profit margins because so much gets moved with diesel. So it's not just consumers being affected right now.

Carl Quintanilla (3:21)

We've talked about the correlation between energy and Treasury yields, which, by the way, on that news, stick with us. We are getting, I think, some news out of Treasury for that. We'll turn to Steve Leesman. Steve?

Steve Leesman (3:30)

Yeah, hang on. I'm just getting a statement here from a Treasury official.

Carl, the enhanced buybacks coming in at $6 billion, that's an operation that will take place tomorrow by way of background. These were $2 billion buybacks of off-the-run securities in the 20 to 30 year range, and now they have been increased to $6 billion. When Treasury announced this on August 19th, they said at least $4 billion. You'll remember Treasury Secretary came on our air, talked with Sara Eisen, said it could be larger than that. And I reported that it could be, they could use the Treasury General account to make these purchases. We don't know if that's the case or what we do know is that they're up to $6 billion. What we're waiting for now in addition is a new buyback schedule to see if the additional seven operations or six additional operations now will be at that level. Now just before we got on air, I got a statement from an administration official. I'll just read it live here. Today's announcement reflects continued optimization to Treasury buyback program. Treasury routinely monitors buyback operations and adjusts as appropriate to support market functioning and liquidity. The increase in buyback operation size is part of that ongoing approach. This builds on prior enhancement to the program, including last year's increase in buyback frequency. So they're trying to say it's part of normal operations, even though, of course, this is a larger operation. And the question becomes the extent to which the bond market is reacting to this. And I am seeing here 482