SOTS 2nd Hour: China Tariffs Latest; Palantir Surges; A Spirits Slowdown 2/4/25

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Are you still quoting 30-year-old movies? Have you said, cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99 percent of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now. It pays to Discover. Learn more at discover.com/creditcardbased on the February 2024 Nelson Report.

SPEAKER_2 (0:28)

Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University, we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals, like business management, strategic planning and effective communication. And you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu.

Sara Eisen (1:06)

Good Tuesday morning, welcome to another hour of Squawk on the Street. I'm Sara Eisen with Carl Quintanilla and David Faber, live as always from Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks are climbing this morning. Trade tensions ease and the S&P is up about a third of 1%.

NASDAQ up eight tenths of 1%. It is tech in the lead again. Along with energy, energy stocks are doing well up one and a quarter percent for the group, communication services, consumer discretionary materials and industrials, all higher. The Dow is actually down a little bit. You've got some names there dragging on the Dow. Look, earnings are front and center. Merck is dragging 72 points off the Dow. Visa, American Express, Sherwin-Williams also all lower. Take a look at treasuries right now. Trend has been buying bonds with yields a bit lower. It's kind of reversing on the 10 year and 30 year today, 4.55. But on the short end, we're moving south 4.23. We're going to get jolts any second now.

Carl Quintanilla (2:01)

They're out right now. We'll get to that in a second. Another big morning on Capitol Hill as well.

Senate Finance set to vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. We will get you those headlines as soon as they happen.

Sara Eisen (2:14)

Key vote to determine whether it moves to the floor. We're 30 minutes here into the trading session. Here are some big earnings related movers. We're watching Palantir surging to record highs. Check out this move up almost 27% after a big beat and strong guidance. More on what to do with the stock from here in just a moment. Big Pharma is also on the move. I mentioned Merck. Revenue guidance for the full year came in below expectations. Pfizer beat estimates though and reaffirmed its full year outlook. Then watching consumer names. Pepsi reporting weaker than expected North American demand. We've got some fresh comments from the CEO to share with you in just a bit. Estee Lauder out with disappointing forecast cutting up to 7,000 jobs. Clorox raising guidance. All those stocks are lower. Estee Lauder down 13%.

Carl Quintanilla (2:58)

Let's get to that aforementioned Joltz data. Let's get to Rick Santelli.

Sara Eisen (3:01)

Hey, Rick.

Rick Santelli (3:02)

Hey, Carl and D. Joltz. This is the December number. It's always two months in the rear. It's expecting 8 million-ish. 7,600,000. That is the smallest month-over-month job openings. Well, going all the way back to SEP of last year, there was a revision upward though of November, and that was from 8,098,000 to 8,156,000.

Now, let's look at factory orders for December, shall we? Expected down 8,010,000, pretty much as expected. Down 9,010,000, that would be the weakest, going back to July of last year. But we did have a revision in the wrong direction, unfortunately, from minus 4,010,000 our last look, doubling down to minus 8,010,000. So, back-to-back weakness in factory orders. Now, let's look at ex-transportation. Dramatic improvement, up to 3,010,000. Durable goods, now, these are final reads. We can get rid of the mid-month read. Mid-month read, minus 2.2, it remains at minus 2.2. Once again, strip-out transportation, we can see where the drag was. Moves up to up 3,010,000, exactly as the mid-month read. Now, let's look at capital good orders, non-defense, ex-air, a proxy, of course, for capital spending, up 4,010,000. The mid-month read was up 5,010,000, still pretty solid all in all. This is the second consecutive positive number back-to-back November, was a very strong up 9,010,000. That was up 9,010,000. And finally, if we go from orders to shipments, comes in 1,010,000 lighter than our mid-month read, from 6,010,000 up 5,010,000, or half of 1%.