SOTS 2nd Hour: Your Earnings Playbook - from Big Tech to Healthcare, Plus Anthropic Fundraise Details 4/30/26

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David Faber (0:16)

Now, where did I put my keys?

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Investing involves risk, including risk of loss.

Richard Bernstein (0:25)

Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, member NYSE SIPC.

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Sara Eisen (1:00)

Good Thursday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Sara Eisen with Carl Quintanilla and David Faber. We are live as always from Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Coming up on today's show, the Mag-7 divergence alphabet is jumping. Amazon met up Microsoft pulling back after last night's results. And today we get Apple after the bell. We'll talk about what to do with your big tech holdings right now.

Plus, oil touching its highest level since the start of the Iran War. But one market expert says gas prices aren't high enough yet to meaningfully change consumer behavior. And Anthropic weighing a new funding round at an eye-popping valuation more than double what it was just in February. We've got new reporting on that straight ahead.

Carl Quintanilla (1:38)

Busy day for data, PCE, GDP claims, and now some LEI. Let's get to Rick Santelli. Hey, Rick.

Rick Santelli (1:46)

Hi, Carl and Dean. Now, this is a March Read on LEI. February will be coming out also. So, when I comp, I'm going to be missing a month that will be released this morning as well. But the March Read, expecting down 2 tens, triple that. Down 6 tens. Down 6 tens. That would be the weakest since April of last year. And that April reading, by the way, was down 1.3. And that was the worst reading going back to the COVID month of April of 2020 So, this is not a good read. We also saw Chicago PMI, the weakest read of the year. So, we want to pay attention to these numbers. And I do want to point out that oil, of course, we still seem to be shadow boxing that in interest rates. We are much higher this morning. We've eased back a bit. We have a double intraday top on the 10-year yesterday and today, right around that 4.43% level. 437 should be support because it was resistance going up. Look for that to be the spot that we re-test. Sara, back to you.

Sara Eisen (2:47)

Okay, well watch it. Thank you. With your help, Rick Santelli.

Big news, of course, that everyone's talking about still this morning is Fed Chair Powell. I think the biggest surprise that came out of yesterday is that he is planning to stay on board as Fed Governor even when his term is up. And here's why, here's how he described his reasoning.

Jerome Powell (3:07)

You know, I'm literally staying because of the actions that have been taken. I had long planned to be retiring and, you know, the things that have happened really in the last three months have, I think, left me no choice but to stay until I see them through at least that long.

Sara Eisen (3:22)

And this is a big deal, you know, when they say this is out of the norms. I mean, it is true that we haven't seen this happen from other previous Fed Chairs in modern history.

Carl Quintanilla (3:34)

Going back to Eccles.

Sara Eisen (3:35)

Mariner at Girls, 1948, he stayed till 51 and he stayed in part as kind of a protest vote because he wanted tighter monetary policy because of the post-World War II inflation. Also it did help lead to the creation of the 1951 Independence Act for the Fed, you know, where Treasury wouldn't have as much control on the Fed. But Fed Chair Powell has made it clear that it's not a policy move. He's not there to protest Kevin Warsh. You know, in fact congratulated him and said that he would remain low key, that it's very much because of the threats to what he thinks is independence for the institution. And I think that there are two sort of outstanding issues there to watch on that, you know, that we could see maybe more of a final end to some of these issues. Of course, the concern, yes, the criminal investigation was dropped by the Department of Justice around the building costs and whether he lied about it or that. But, you know, there are questions there about whether they might appeal or, you know, continue to fight this. I think if there's finality to that, maybe he would have a better chance of leaving. And also, you know, the attempt by the administration to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook without necessarily proof, you know, just accusing her here of mortgage fraud. I think when that gets settled as well, those are two key things that I would watch to see how long he might stay as governor. His term is up in the beginning of 2028 He didn't indicate that he would be staying that whole time. You know, the president, for his part, of course, weighed in.