11AM Hour: Former Fed Governor Stephen Miran, Qualcomm’s AI Device Roadmap, Energy Markets React to U.S.-Iran Talks 6/16/26

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Sara Eisen (1:06)

Good Tuesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Sara Eisen with Carl Quintanilla, live from Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Today, FedWatch, as new chair Kevin Warsh steers his first moves on interest rates. We'll discuss expectations there and whether there's still a case for a cut. With former Fed Governor Stephen Miran, he joins us here at Post 9 in just a few minutes.

Carl Quintanilla (1:25)

The SpaceX surge overtaking Amazon and briefly Microsoft by market cap today to join the top five most valuable companies in just its third day of trading.

Sara Eisen (1:35)

And FCC Chair Brendan Carr says the agency is working to boost the space economy, supporting America's satellite infrastructure build out. Chair Carr joins us to discuss that and more later this hour.

Carl Quintanilla (1:45)

As for markets, a little mix today after yesterday's banner run, got some energy weakness once again, information technology down about a percent, VIX close to 16, staples up a little bit. Yesterday was interesting because even with all the trade that was higher, you had retail down, Walmart, Costco, it wasn't a rush back to consumer names the way it was, say, for some travel stock.

Sara Eisen (2:07)

Yeah, maybe that rotation is playing out a little bit today as well, with the S&P 500 lower, but most sectors higher. And it's a mix of the defensive stocks, as you say, like utilities, which are at the top of the market, and the financials and cyclical stocks there as well. It's really just tech, mostly underperforming, which, you know, that impacts the overall index.

Carl Quintanilla (2:27)

Yeah, also software versus semis, a fresh five-year low. Let's bring in TD. Banke, US. Vice Chair, Special Advisor Jeff Solomon, who joins us here at Post 9 There's so much to get to.

I wonder, given all the pots that are boiling, what do you think is the most important right now?

Jeff Solomon (2:41)

Well, I think what the most important is, let's see what this agreement looks like at the end of the week with regards to the war. I mean, I think that's sort of, you can't really decide what you're going to be doing until you see how that looks.

In my sense, I've been pretty consistent. I think this is going to end sooner rather than later because I don't think the American public has the stomach for a long and protracted, you know, conflict.

Sara Eisen (3:05)

Mr. Michael Warren was just saying, politics.

Jeff Solomon (3:07)

Right.

The war wasn't sold to the American public. You know, gas prices are higher. Kitchen table economics always went out in the end.

Carl Quintanilla (3:15)

And so I think we need to see how this plays out, but, you know, up until then, up until Friday until we actually see the document itself and the signing itself, like, that's what most, although we just had a long discussion about whether Israel acts as a spoiler, potentially, if they don't want to go by these guidelines on Lebanon and gollybops on the tape right now, saying that Lebanon has to be a part of this.

Jeff Solomon (3:39)

Yeah, this is a multifaceted war. I mean, let's be, let's set the table here. Iran has been a bad actor in the region for a long time. They have their proxies. All right, and Hezbollah and Hamas have been proxies for Iran, and people need to call that out for what it is. And Iran has said over and over again, as of those, that they're going to look to eliminate the state of Israel. Like, that's in their charter. So I don't know why anybody should be surprised that they might be acting up around that. That's what they've said they want to do. And Israel has to take them at face value. Israel has no choice but to take them at face value. Now, in this particular situation, we have had hot wars that have turned cold, and we've had periods of extended peace.