11AM Hour: Senator Mark Warner on AI Regulation, Former Fed Governor Stephen Miran & Energy Secretary Chris Wright 9/15/26

Sara Eisen (0:00)

The board recommends approving.

Mark Warner (0:01)

Regarding that seat on the committee, we're promoting.

SPEAKER_3 (0:02)

To boost quarterly earnings.

SPEAKER_4 (0:04)

Every day, shareholders meet to discuss important matters about the companies you invest in. Now you can easily make your voice heard. Vanguard Investor Choice gives you a say in the companies you invest in. With just a few taps, you can set your proxy voting preference for your index funds. Visit vanguard.com/investorchoice to learn more. Vanguard Investors own shares of our index funds, which own shares of the companies they invest in. Available for Vanguard index funds that participate in Investor Choice, Vanguard Marketing Corporation Distributor.

SPEAKER_5 (0:30)

At 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 and a fraction of the time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building. That's Venture Global.

That's unstoppable energy.

Sara Eisen (1:00)

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. We've got a big show ahead for you today.

Call it Washington's AI moment, tech CEOs urging AI regulation, President Trump calling the anxieties a hoax, and Congress divided with some pushing for new guardrails. We'll discuss with one of the Senate's leading voices on AI, Vice Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Mark Warner.

Carl Quintanilla (1:24)

With the 10-year Treasury yield hitting its highest level since 7 and Fed rate hike expectations on the rise, we are joined by former Fed Governor, Miran, in just a few minutes.

Sara Eisen (1:33)

And geopolitical concerns, sending crude prices climbing diesel to a new record, and that all has oil executives warning on global supplies. We'll discuss the path ahead with Energy Secretary, Chris Wright.

Carl Quintanilla (1:44)

Mark, it's still trying to work its way through some chop here. S&P now a six-week low, as we kind of took out that 75, 80 level a moment ago. Not many sectors are green, in fact, only one, and that's energy with 1% gain. Ten years, we've been pointed out, very much pinned to 5% having gotten to 504 overnight. Our next guest says risk assets remain strong despite his firm predicting two hikes by year end. Joining us this morning is HSBC Chief Multi-Asset Strategist, Max Kettner. Max, welcome back. Things getting more interesting by the day, but it sounds like you do think equities can survive some lift to yields from here.

Max Kettner (2:24)

Yeah, I think so. I mean, number one, right, Carl, we've seen the lift to yields already tremendously. Actually, we've got almost 100 base points of rate hikes for the Fed in the price. And even more so when you look across the pond here in Europe, where really the stir market has seen quite a bit of a shake up in the last few trading days. Now, when we compare that to earnings, and I think that's the piece that is overlooked, the earnings upward revisions haven't stopped. I think this is what perhaps is a bit overlooked when people say, yeah, but equities, credit spreads, really risk assets overall, just keep ignoring what's happening to yields, what's happening to oil. And I just don't think that's true. You look at the PE of the S&P, that's down more than four points from where we were last November, it's down more than two points from that local high that we had after the initial recovery in April and in May.

So we have seen quite a bit of damage. When you look even under the hood, look within the NASDAQ 100, you got almost 45 names within the NASDAQ 100 that have seen a multiple compression of more than 10 points since the middle of May in the last four months. You've seen almost a third of the names that have seen a multiple compression of more than 20 points. So we have seen, I would argue, a lot of pain already under the hood.

Carl Quintanilla (3:44)

Yeah, we've talked a lot about forward PEs going from 23 to 19 You think we get to 18?

Max Kettner (3:50)

No, I don't think so. I think we're at such level where it's so cheap and the earning strength that continues so unabatedly that actually I have a tough time to say, okay, you know what, we're going down another five, six percent actually in price levels even. Because when you look actually also at the sentiment and positioning picture, this is also something that really has changed, I think, over the last three or four weeks. It's become significantly more bearish. The only warning sign that we are seeing on the positioning side is really from the systematic side. It's the CTAs, the momentum signals in our positioning framework that are flashing a bit of cell signals. Yes, but the rest particularly on the discretionary side. I think number one, we have seen over the last few days, probably quite a bit of pain among the global macro community, probably across the emerging market community as well. That's number one. Number two, I think the discretionary side is actually still pretty much closer to a bias signal in terms of positioning rather than a cell signal. So that, I do think, does keep a lid on the downside here.