SOTS 2nd Hour: Big Tech on Deck, Reversing on Ford, and Live From Davos in the Desert 10/29/24

Carl Quintanilla (0:00)

Good Tuesday morning. Welcome to another hour of Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla, Melissa Lee's in this morning for Sara Eisen who's on assignment. David Faber here at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Market getting, putting a lid, yields are putting a lid on equities for the most part as the tenure gets to 432 NASDAQ is up eight of nine days, and we'll look forward to the first of some MAG-7 earnings tonight with Alphabet.

Melissa Lee (0:21)

We are 30 minutes into the trading session. A lot of earnings movers today. Here's some of the ones that we're watching this hour. Shares of DR Horton are dropping. Earnings come in well below estimates, saying interest rates are keeping buyers on the sidelines and forcing the company to give more incentives. F5 Networks, meantime, a top gainer on the S&P. At least eight firms raising their price targets on this name this morning, after strong numbers and an upbeat forecast there. JetBlue shares plunging, earnings beat, but full year revenue forecast missing estimates. And PayPal also dropping, big beat on profit, but revenue falling short of estimates. The Fintech also giving a weak revenue outlook. That stock is down 6.5%.

Carl Quintanilla (0:57)

Getting some jolts and consumer confidence. Let's get to Rick Santelli. Morning, Rick.

Rick Santelli (1:02)

Good morning, Carl. Indeed, jolts. This is September read. We're expecting a number somewhere in the vicinity of 8 million openings, 7,443, and last month was revised. It came in at 8,040. It's now coming in at 7,861. So this now becomes the lowest read going back to January of 2021, January of 2021 In terms of the Conference Board consumer confidence numbers, they are coming in, trickling in. I don't know if there's an issue this morning, but headline number expected to be in the vicinity of 99.5 comes in much, much better than expected at 108.7, 108.7.

That ends up being the best level since January of this year. It's the second best level of the year. And if we look at present situation, it comes in at 138, 138 That follows 124.3. That's a blowout number. That's the best since May of this year. And finally, what may lie ahead in the form of expectations, 89.1 blows away the rear view mirror at 81.7. And 89.1, well, that becomes the best level going all the way back to December of 21, December of 21 So we see that yields move down a bit. Now they're coming back up. But maybe the most important number this morning was much earlier. We had an advanced trade deficit that came in the second highest level ever going back to 1989 We could talk about what the election may do ahead. But boy, in the here and now, we have some issues going on. Imports much stronger than exports. But the confidence data much stronger. And do remember that at the high yields of the session today, as Carl referenced around 432 in a tenure, that would be a four-month high close, having closed near that level since the first few days of July. Carl and the gang, back to you.

David Faber (3:06)

OK, I'll take it, Rick. And yeah, that is quite a story right there at 4.3 right now. Let's get more to, or let's get to some of the big earnings names this morning. Pfizer, for example, you can see the stock down about a half a percent. This after a beat in guidance raise, Angelica Peoples has more on those numbers, and what we're hearing from analysts as well. Angelica.

Angelica Peebles (3:28)

Yeah, David, this is exactly what Pfizer needed, this big beat and raise. But what's interesting is where this beat is coming from, and that's coming from its COVID portfolio.

So in the quarter, PacSlovid, that's the COVID antiviral, that beat estimates by about $2 billion, and its COVID vaccine also coming about $400 million ahead of estimates. Remember, Pfizer is trying to move beyond the COVID franchise and get people to pay attention to what else is in the pipeline and in the portfolio. But the one area that it's focusing on a lot is cancer, and we saw some pretty mixed results there. A few of those drugs from Siegen, coming in a little bit short. So we're going to want to hear more from Pfizer on the call about what is happening there in cancer. JP Morgan today saying that Pfizer really needs to see more progress in the portfolio and in the pipeline to significantly change the narrative. The big question of course today is, will this be enough to get Starboard off of Pfizer's back and will this be enough for the company to get investors to buy into the story? One area where Pfizer is trying to make progress is obesity. The company today saying that it expects an update on its experimental pill, Danuglipron, early next year. It's also highlighting two other early stage pills in the pipeline. So again, we're going to want to hear more on the call today and see where those stand, guys.