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Now time for some of today's trending tickers. We're watching GE Vernova, AT&T, and Bitcoin. Joining me now, we've got my morning brief co-host, Madison Mills. First up, Maddie, we got to talk about shares of GE Vernova. They are rising after reaffirming its full year sales outlook between 36 and $37 billion here, including in the guidance is the company's estimated impact from tariffs and subsequent inflation to the tune of 300 to $400 million. GE Vernova CEO touting the company's strong first quarter results and saying the company is well positioned at this point to navigate the current environment here. As of right now, we're continuing to track shares of GE Vernova, of course, uh we're seeing those still hold on to gains right now of what looks like about 6%.

Yeah, interesting too, the company swinging back to profit as well, which of course is very important for investors and this theme continuing on earnings calls of executives being able to convince investors that they have the unique ability to withstand any tariff uncertainty. And so far, that's been enough. But also to GE Vernova's credit, they got the fundamentals to back it up, reporting that first quarter profit of 264 million. That reverses a $106 million loss from the prior year and also exceeded analyst expectations. Revenue up by 11%, over 8 billion surpassing the estimate of seven and a half billion. That was driven by strong orders in services and also orders in power equipment as well. And finally, the company's order backlog did increase by $4.4 billion, maintaining revenue guidance as well of 36 to $37 billion over the course of this next year, maintaining that outlook despite any impact from tariffs, which again they say they're well positioned to handle.

All right, next up, we got to talk about AT&T. This company rising on strong customer gains here. Now the carrier reporting it got more subscribers than analysts expected in the first quarter. That's 324,000 mobile phone customers versus Wall Street projections for just a little under 254,000. I spoke with the company CFO Pascal Desroches, who tells me a few things here and three main takeaways kind of came from that conversation. One of the main takeaways within that was just where this company sits in the demand for its services, regardless of what economic cycle we are. People love to scroll on their phones for cat videos and ultimately consume content on their social media feeds, connectivity for your businesses and whatnot. And so that really places some of the major wireless carriers at the center of that service that is continuously needed regardless of the economic cycle. He kind of leaned into that during our conversation. One of the other things that came up within our conversation as well was just how this company could be impacted by tariffs and what they're awaiting. They are awaiting more resolution as many other companies are. But notably, they, of course, are working with the manufacturers of new phones and devices to try and understand how many of those devices are able to skirt tariffs by being shipped in ahead of some of the deadlines, uh and then on a longer term basis, trying to figure out what new models might be impacted as a result of tariffs. We're waiting for those negotiations. And just lastly here, Maddie, a $20 billion net kind of multi-year buyback rollout that kind of buoying some of this investor sentiment that we could be seeing here on the day as well. I believe it's three or yeah, three billion of that that's essentially going to kick off in the second quarter of this year. And then you have $7 billion that's going to take place in the rest of this year and into 2026 and then 2027, you've got $10 billion that they're going to initiate a program around as well. So watching more closely for that. Um, but a lot at play within AT&T's numbers today.

And excellent that you're able to bring us that reporting, Brad, in terms of your conversations and getting that inside on the call as well. Uh, the only thing I would add is that there was a question mark heading into this print off the back of Verizon's disappointing earnings, AT&T able to eke past some of those concerns. But the wording from analysts, slightly positive, appears solid, not necessarily super bullish there.

Absolutely. One of the other companies here lastly that we're watching, shares of crypto-related stocks here trading higher as Bitcoin holds above the $90,000 mark. This marks the third straight day of gains for Bitcoin. Crypto names including Coinbase, strategy, Marathon holdings or holdings and Robinhood all getting a boost on that rally. You're seeing shares, well not shares, but you're seeing Bitcoin higher right now by about 1.7% during this 24-hour period we should note.

Right, and it's interesting because Bitcoin's been holding above that key 90,000 level, hitting that on Tuesday of this week and maintaining that momentum to the upside, bringing along some of the other crypto stocks with it. Are we seeing a bit of a bid into Bitcoin off the back of dollar weakness? Are we seeing a little bit of exhaustion in the gold trade, which is coming off its highs this morning, investors seeking safety in some other alternative assets like Bitcoin and like Bitcoin related stocks, which again are also continuing to move to the upside this morning.