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Hello and welcome to Market domination sponsored by Tasty Trade. I'm Julie. That's Josh Lipton live from our New York City headquarters. We are giving you the ultimate investing playbook to help tune out the noise and make the right moves for your money.

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It's a very big deal right now, but I think it is gonna grow just of its own volition it's gonna grow and over time there'll be changes made, there'll be adjustments made because we're flexible we'll see things that we can do even better, but it's very conclusive and we uh we think everyone's gonna be happy and.The people of your country are going to be very impressed with the result, and they'll be able to buy from more people. They'll be able to price things differently. They'll be able to get some products that aren't available to them that that we make better than anybody in the world, and it's just something that it's a great thing that it came together.I think that we're gonna have a, I think we're gonna have a good weekend with China. I think they have a lot to gain. I do think they have far more to gain than we do in a sense, but, uh, we're gonna have a good, I think we're gonna have a very good weekend.

The forward looking datakind of tells a different story. Consumer confidence has been coming down over the last few months. Business confidence also softening. At the same time, those surveys are showing both fears of a softer economy but also fears of higher inflation. And so that points to the job getting tougher for the Fed in the next couple ofmonths.

We have got 1 hour to go until the market closes. So let's take a look at the major averages and we do see a rally, pretty solid rally, especially after we had the formal announcement of this limited trade deal or framework between the US and the UK. The Dow rising 474 points, almost 1.2%. The S&P 500% wise up about the same, and the Nasdaq leading gains about 1.7%. I also just quickly wanted to point out what we are seeing.With the British pound given this agreement, we also, by the way, had the Bank of England cut interest rates today, so that's something to consider. There's the euro, and here is the pound, which we're seeing a little bit pull back against the US dollar today. Yes,

so it is a risk on day. We are in rally mode. President Trump, as you noted, announced that limited trade deal with the UK. He also talked about sources suggested he might lower tariffs on China if those.Talks go well this weekend in Switzerland. I mean, listen, we know investors have been just studying every headline, Julie, about trade war and tariffs and looking for any kind of signs of progress or forward movement. So today you're kind of asking, listen, one Trump did call it a breakthrough, I think is how he put it. So is it really a breakthrough? Is it a win? How does it benefit the UK? Importantly for investors you looked at and.OK, well that could serve as kind of a model maybe for other deals, if at all, all those questions are being asked. We have, of course, just the right guess to.

And one thing to point out as people are trying to suss out how important this is, is it a breakthrough, the 10% tariff, the base tariff on UK goods remains, and that is a higher tariff than was previously in place. So that's something to keep in mind. Taking a look at some of the groups in the S&P 5.100 and what we're seeing there utilities and healthcare are down sort of rotation out of defensives and as you said risk on here so industrials, consumer discretionary energy are all helping lead the gains in today's session. Then we always like to look at large cap technology, not seeing huge moves here. We're pretty solid gains across the board. Alphabet coming back from yesterday's drop with about a 3% gain here.Well, President Trump announcing that first trade deal with the UK earlier today. For more, I'll bring in Ambassador Philip Riecker, former ambassador to the UK and Albright Albright Stonebridge Group partner, part of DGA Group. Ambassador Rieker, thank you so much for being here. So I guess first of all I would ask what your assessment is of this sort of framework deal that we've learned about today.

Well, thanks Julie and Josh. It's, it's great to join you today. Um, look, I think this is important that the timing was great in terms of, uh, coming out on the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, uh, just reminding us what the US and the UK together can accomplish. I think this is a first step.Uh, clearly, uh, what I saw from the White House and the announcements both by the Prime Minister and by the president, was that they've talked about the things they're gonna talk about. They've outlined the crucial things that sort of announced that this is the first of many deals as President Trump has promised for a while, um, and then we're gonna have to see, you know, what kind of details emerge, what evolves, uh, in terms of, uh, vehicles, the steel and aluminum question remains out there, uh.Digital services tax looks like there's maybe some room there. Uh, a lot of things still to be defined. I don't wanna uh take away the idea that they've made a big first step with the United Kingdom, but much more to see what comes.

So, so Ambassador, when, when President Trump, listen, he, he calls this a breakthrough. I mean, do, do you consider this a breakthrough? Is it a win for the Trump administration? Is it a win for the US? Or is your point, it's too soon to say?

I guess I'd have to go in between like a, like a good diplomat. Uh, look, it's, it's great that they're able to announce something. Clearly some some work has been done. It's early days to see what really comes from it. I think the fact that there is uh talk, there is negotiation going on, that in itself is a win.Uh, there's opportunities here and the will of both sides to uh to reach some sort of agreement is clear. What will come in the end will have to be carefully looked at, uh, in broader context, and we'll see where that leads us. The 10% uh tax across the board, uh, that is the tariff, uh remains in place, and uh we'll we'll see um.What kind of exceptions and other things can be developed on the broader relationship, but you know, a good day for the US and the UK to celebrate the opportunity to move ahead together onthis.

Ambassador, I have sort of a nuts and bolts, nitty gritty kind of question here about these trade deals getting done and not just getting done, but then all of the details being worked out as we've been talking about. I'm curious about the numbers of people.Takes to do these because working on one deal with the UK is one thing, but they're also gonna be working on potentially a deal with China and India and Vietnam and Mexico and Canada and effectively every country in the world. So how many like what numbers of people does it take to do all of that and does that staff even exist? Like how does this all work?

Well, in my experience, uh, I came from the State Department, which has a certain role, uh, in this, and obviously at our embassies, uh, when I was in London, there was a lot of talk about trying to find ways forward on, on trade, uh, that was already, uh, in the early days of the Biden administration when I was interim ambassador there. Under the Trump administration, we've been looking at ways uh to try to have a broader agreement with the United Kingdom after they had left the EU through Brexit.Most of that work, uh, goes on through the USTR, the trade representative's office, and I think it was crucial that they are staffing up. They've got some people in place, and we hear from our contacts, uh, in the trade world and from other countries that with USTR on board, there is a little more focus, there's more expertise, uh.That said, as you pointed out, Julie, there's a lot of agreements to be done. Uh, they're only 24 hours in every day, uh, and the people have a bandwidth to deal with this. You've got talks going on with China. That'll be crucial. President Trump mentioned those. Uh, you've got an EU delegation here, the director general for trade, uh, in Washington this week, uh looking at uh possibilities there, um, so.A lot of work, uh, and it does take a lot of people. The devil is always in the details in these kinds of agreements. You can just imagine, uh, the size of some of these agreements, uh, you know, a 3 page summary from the White House gives you an oversight and a shot at where they are, are aiming to go, but we'll have to see how they get there.

Politically, uh, Ambassador, I'm curious, how do you think this trade deal plays at home for for Prime Minister Keir Starmer?

Well, it's important, I think that he's shown that he's able to deliver engagement from the Trump administration. He had a very good meeting here uh some weeks ago in the White House, of course, he brought the invitation from King Charles for President Trump to, to visit the United Kingdom again, full of, uh, I'm sure, good pomp, uh, and, uh, and ceremony, which is befitting for our two countries and the the strong.Uh, long standing relationship and alliance that we have. Um, I think, uh, he's been able to show uh that they're taking very seriously efforts to engage in reducing tariffs that have a very negative impact on certain British sectors. You saw Rolls-Royce jet engines, uh, for instance, specifically mentioned, as well as uh certain makes of automobile, um.It's early days, uh, to see this, but I do think uh the Prime Minister has something to uh to be pleased about to uh bring the attention of his constituencies to.As well as the White House, which of course has made this a fairly high profile announcement today.

And finally, Ambassador, your experience was not just in the UK. You also served in various diplomatic roles across Europe, and so I'm curious what you're expecting now from the European Union given that this agreement has been struck and also.The idea to go back to Josh's political question, you know, a lot of political, I don't know what seemed to be certainties around the globe have been upended in part by folks pushing back against President Trump. And so how is that all going to play out as the EU now tries to navigate the situation?

Well, it, it's interesting, uh, Julie, that you bring that up because I did have a chance to, to meet with some uh European officials this week and, and talk to them about that. What struck me is that they remain veryReady for engagement. They're they're very prepared uh for engagement uh to consider rebalancing where that's necessary, uh, certainly to listen and try to determine what it is that the Trump administration really wants, uh, from the tariff regimes, from uh these steps on trade that have been taken early in the administration.Uh, they're clearly ready to negotiate. They make quite clear that they're prepared to have 0 for zero in terms of of tariffs, something that has been talked about, uh, by the Trump administration as a longer term goal. I think we're hearing here in Washington that that 10% tariff across the board that the administration announced early on is likely to stay.Um, that means, of course, there'll be reciprocal tariffs, but on other areas, uh, there's room, uh, to, to, to look and negotiate and uh see what may come.There's also a desire to create more predictability, more certainty. That's what's royal markets where you have this, um, you know, very frenetic, uh, tariffs being announced, tariffs being suspended, uh, complicated uh charts that show who has what tariff, when, as you know very well, but that's not something that the private sector and business likes. They want to know certainty, they wanna know uh what to expect.Uh, they want to know when and how they can ship their goods and that their supply chains are, are safe and well preserved. That's, I think what they'll be looking for from the EU, but from all the other markets uh during these days, and I would add that I think it's also important that the, the UK and the EU have uh seen themselves to finding a better way forward. They had some very difficult times after Brexit. There was a lot of uh acrimony.Uh, and, uh, and hurt feelings from the Brexit argument, certainly, uh, during the government under, uh, Boris Johnson, I think it's important that the UK and the EU are finding their own way forward and that each of them then will, will deal with Washington, uh, in a rational way to try to bring some more predictability to uh global trade and the transatlantic relationship.

Ambassador, so good to have you on the show today. Thanks so much for your time,

sir. It's apleasure. Take care.

Well, for more on the latest market moves as stocks are jumping amid trade hopes, let's welcome in now Ross Mayfield, Baird investment strategist. Ross, it is always good to see you on the show. So we know trade tariffs Ross, you know, they have been front and center for investors. Now we have President Trump announcing this limited trade deal with the UK. Markets are rallying. Ross, as a strategist, you saw those headlines, you read those reports. What do you make of them?

Yeah, I mean, it's obviously a positive. I think the bigger news than the UK deal, although, as you mentioned, that's setting kind of a framework for what investors should look for in these other deals. But the big thing was President Trump commenting on China in a positive way at all. The idea thatThere could be an off ramp from these, you know, punitive tariffs and reciprocal tariffs with one of the, you know, the other biggest economies in the world is the story, right? And so that, um, that we have negotiations coming up that President Trump is talking even somewhat positively about.Uh, China at this point, I think is a huge relief for investors. Obviously we know things can be volatile, but I think that's the big takeaway. The UK deal is nice to have. A lot of these other countries are going to be nice to have, but having some level of certainty on China is going to be the big thing, uh, for the next couple of years.

So Ross, I guess my question would be, you know, we obviously were pricing on a lot of bad news at the lows in terms of how this trade war might play out. What are we pricing in now, right? And what does that imply for where we could go from here?

I think the market right now is pricing in that basically this 10% baseline tariff is fine, or the market is saying it's fine because if it weren't OK with that, then there might have been a negative reaction to what was left in place with the UK today. So you've got that as a baseline. But other than that, I think the market is expecting pretty widespread resolution, um, from the, the reciprocal tariff.That were announced on April 2nd because we are functionally back at the pre-liberation day levels, um, the S&P equal weight is, is flat-ish on the year. So we're pricing in that this trade war is basically going to amount to not all that much in terms of punitive tariffs. And so I think that the, uh, the market right now is pricing that in and won't hesitate to.Um, you know, kind of push back or arm wrestle the administration if they start to go back to where they were pre-April 2nd. So I wouldn't say that retesting the lows is out of the question by any means, but only if the administration gives some evidence that they're going to lean back into that more restrictive trade environment.

Ross, I'm curious, what are your expectations for, for corporate profit growth this year and how confident are you in that forecast given all the uncertainty we're talking about here?

Well, I can't be any more confident than all of the companies who are trying to grow their businesses are, and they're all pulling guidance. So I, I can't give you a, a great answer here. I would expect at this point.You know, we're about 90% of the way through first quarter earnings. We've seen strong growth, you know, broad growth across sectors outside the energy sector. And so that to me says that companies were on solid ground entering the year. They had some momentum. What the impact of this tariff uncertainty will do, um, I think is up in the air. I think you, you can still expect growth, you know, if we're just doing binary growth or contraction, I would still be on the growth side of the spectrum.Um, but I think it could be more in the single digits, you know, coming into the year, we expected something like 1213, 15%. I think single digit growth would be a nice outcome this year. Obviously, valuations are expensive, so that would end up, you know, maybe not the best year for the S&P 500, but coming off of such a strong 23 and 24, um, maybe to be expected anyway.

So Ross, what do we do in terms of strategy going from here, given, you know, given the tariff uncertainty that still is lingering around?

Yeah, it's the, it's the million dollar question. I think what you do here is trying to solve the tariff problem is borderline impossible in my opinion, because you have to get into the psychology of the administration and and and know what they're going to do next, because this is being levied, uh, from the executive, uh, the executive branch, you know, it doesn't run through checks and balances as much. So you getting into their heads is very, very difficult. So what do you do instead?I think you focus on secular growth themes, structural themes that are gonna be here regardless of how the tariffs play out over the next 6 or 12 months, right? Things like AI, things like deglobalization, things like the need for more power. I think you pick some structural themes, you look for the high quality companies with good management teams, and you lean into those. And if there's a, a, you know, a big risk on rally and you lag the kind of junkier stuff, I think you have to be OK with that because you've you've reached for quality in a time of deep uncertainty.

Ross, thanks. Good to see you.

Thanks, thanks for having me.

We have to pinpoint another and highlight another asset today, and that's Bitcoin. The price is soaring above $100,000 today as tariff trade optimism has sparked a rally in crypto, including coin-based shares, by the way. They're also getting a boost, and this coming after the company announced it had reached an agreement to acquire crypto options platform Daabit. Yahoo Finance's David Holler joins us now.With more we talked about earlier, Dave. It's good to see you, by the way. We talked earlier about um the sort of risk on that was happening with everything today um and I guess crypto is not excluded.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's uniquely resilient to the market so far this year and uh Coinbase's situation in particular is fairly unique in that they have this big acquisition.Uh, you know, probably, um, today in the crypto in crypto sector one of the biggest, so there's that going on and then I think that there's just this huge, uh, tailwind effect of all the regulatory barriers that are coming down even yesterday we had the OCC.which is a bank regulator, um, lifting and giving guidance to banks, so crypto is kind of seeing this major tailwind amidst the tariff turmoil, and it's not super clear either how they how crypto would be affected by tariffs either so

yeah, that is a very good point and we're waiting for Coinbase numbers after the bell as well we should mention that as we talk about the deal. Thanks so much, appreciate it, Dave.All right, we're just getting started here on market domination. Coming up, what's next for the Fed and Jay Powell following its latest decision to hold interest rates steady? We discussed with the former Fed president on the other side, and after the closing bell today, it's another round of earnings reports. We'll get you the latest from Lyft, Coinbase, as we mentioned, and many others around more market domination still to come.President Trump calling Fed Chair Jay Powell a fool as the central bank keeps rates steady. Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Schonberger joining us now with more on that latest post from the president.

Good afternoon, Julie. Yes, just one day after the Federal Reserve opted to hold interest rates steady, President Trump resuming his criticism of Fed Chair Jay Powell, calling him a fool who's too late and doesn't have a clue. Fed Chair Jay Powell and the rest of the central bank are awaiting greater clarity on the impact of the president's policies on the economy before charting a course forward on interest rates.The Fed sees the risks for both higher unemployment and higher inflation rising in the face of the president's tariffs. Chair Pell indicated no sign of an imminent change in policy, noting that preemptive rate cuts just wouldn't make sense right now in the face of all the uncertainty and expectation for higher inflation and weaker growth. I asked Fed Chair Jay Powell during his press conference on Wednesday why he hasn't reached out to the president for a meeting amidst all this uncertainty.I've never asked for a meeting with any president, and I never will. It's not I wouldn't do that. There's never a reason for me to ask for a meeting. It's always been the other way. So would you want to meet with him if given the opportunity, it's never an initiative that I take. It's.Always an initiative. I, I, you know, I don't think it's up to a Fed chair to seek a meeting with the president, although maybe some have done so. I've never done so and I can't imagine myself doing that. I think it's always comes the other way. A president wants to meet with you, but that hasn't happened.Today the president responded, saying that he has no plans to call Powell for a meeting.

Chairman, Mr. President says that uh you would have to call him for a meeting. Do you plan to meet with him but it was like talking to a wall. He should, he should be. Well, the Bank of England cut, China cut, everybody's cutting but him, uh.It's, uh, you know, I don't know, let's, we'll see what happens. It's a shame. I call him too late, you know, too late Powell, that's his nickname, and it's a shame, it's ridiculous.

Trump has repeatedly called on the Fed chair and the rest of the central bank to lower interest rates and did so again today in the Oval Office, saying that perhaps one reason why the Fed chair hasn't lowered interest rates is because he's not in love with me. Of course all of us.After the president earlier this year saying that Powell's termination couldn't come quickly enough only for the president to later clarify that he has no intention of firing Fed Chair Jay Powell before his term is up in May 2026. Back to you,

Chen, thanks very much.Well, President Trump, as he resumes his criticism of Fed Chair Jay Powell after the Fed kept interest rates unchanged, Trump continuing to call for the Fed to lower rates. However, the central bank awaiting greater clarity before making a change in policy. Fed Chair Powell emphasizing the uncertainty on how Trump's tariffs would affect the economy.

A sharp decline in sentiment and elevated uncertainty despite heightened uncertainty, highly uncertain, a great deal of uncertainty there so much uncertainty. The thing is we don't know that there's so much uncertainty. My gut tells me that uncertainty about the path of the economy is extremely elevated, to say it again, the the timing, the scope, the scale, and the persistence of those effects are very, very uncertain.

For more on the Fed's next move, let's bring in Robert Kaplan, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs and former Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas president. Rob, it's great to see you as always. We're gonna get to the president's stuff, but first I want to start with that air of uncertainty, which of course J Powell is not unique in talking about. Every company on their conference calls, uh, this time have talked about that uncertainty.How does the Fed navigate during periods of uncertainty? There have been certainly periods before where the data has not been clear and the Fed has had to chart its course anyway. How do you think the folks there are thinking about that right now?

So there's a couple of types of uncertainty. There are periods that are of cyclical uncertainty where you wonder if the economy is softening just cyclically.Uh, then there are times where there are fundamental structural changes. That's what's going on right now. And what I mean by structural changes, we're changing the way we do government spending. There's a new tax bill coming in the next few months in addition, uh, we are, uh, redoing regulatory oversight across industries. There's an effort to dramatically curtail immigration, uh, it's certainly illegal immigration. We haven't ramped up legal immigration.And we're deporting some number of immigrants and there's uncertainty among millions of undocumented immigrants, then you get to tariffs and the, the issue on tariffs is we don't know what the levels are gonna be. Uh, we've got extraordinary tariffs on right now with China.We, we have a bunch of negotiations going on. We just don't know how they're gonna get resolved. So if that sounds like a lot, that that's a lot and so it's very hard to make an economic forecast when you've got this many structural changes going on.And and and the Fed is trying to be patient and let these things unfold. Uh, the thing that could force their hand is if you saw the economy slowing so significantly that the unemployment rate began to either move up or spike up, but we haven't seen that yet, and I think while there are weakness in the economy in certain sectors.Um, we haven't seen such significant weakness that unemployment is spiking up, and if that's the case, then the feds, uh, is gonna keep taking it one meeting at a time and trying to understand what's going on with both employment and inflation.

Rob, when would you expect that weakness to show up, because the soft data has taken a hit, but the hard data is hanging in there. I mean, you, you heard, I mean, Jay Powell talked about that yesterday, Rob, you know, he said, bottom line, he said economy resilient, labor market resilient, underlying inflation good. So when would you expect that to show up in the hard data?

So there's two things going on. One, the tariffs that we were shocked by on liberation Day haven't actually gone into effect yet.Uh, and so we've seen a lot of pre-ordering and anticipation of them. We've seen businesses trying to figure out how they're gonna manage them, big and small businesses in the one country you see extraordinary highly high tariffs on is China, and that is having some impact we see right now on businesses, um, so we're seeing slowing. The thing that also is going on though, the labor force is very tight.Uh, unusually tight, uh, and the reason is we've, we've reduced immigration flows and organic indigenous flows are very low, so you may actually see we saw a significant first quarter weakness and we didn't see the unemployment rate spike up. Why is that? I think part of it is businesses are reluctant to get rid of workers unless as long as they're gonna stay in business because they know it's gonna be difficult.Replace them. So I, I'm watching I'd be watching every employment report. I'd be talking aggressively and uh to contacts about what they're seeing, but we haven't seen the weakness yet. I can tell you that in a couple of three sectors travel, leisure, tourism, obviously shipping, but apart from that business is hanging in there pretty well, and I don't think you're gonna see the unemployment rate spike up either. I'm not seeing that either at this point.

So Rob, you watch the data, you watch jobs data in particular, you don't listen to what's coming out of the White House presumably if you're a member of the Fed. That said, with the president's rhetoric persisting in terms of him now saying the Fed really needs to cut rates, do you think that at some point J Powell is going to need to come out and make a more forceful case of why cutting is not appropriate right now?

Yeah, I think, I think as this unfolds, particularly if you seeMore, more significant GDP weakness which leads to unemployment spiking up, then yes, he will have to explain more why the ramp up in unemployment isn't enough to justify adjusting rates. The other thing that should be going on here behind the scenes is normally uh the chairman of the Fed will be talking regularly to the Treasury secretary.I'm assuming those conversations are going on. They normally would be, and I think it's very important that that line of communication is also open.

Very interesting, especially since Powell was asked if he's talked to the president, but not if he has talked to Scott Besson. So we'll keep that question in our pockets for next time. Robert Kaplan, thank you so much. Great to see you.

Goodto talk to you.

Now time for some of today's trending ticker sponsored by Tasty Trade. We're checking in on shares of Carvana, Axon, and Crocs. First up, let's talk Carvana. It's riding higher following a double earnings beat. The company's CEO also said he expects the used car business to be less impacted by tariffs than companies that sell new cars. Indeed, we have seen pricing certainly of used cars go higher, but most of those, Josh, are not imported. So you know, maybe people will be turning to used cars more.Instead of new cars, but the numbers here are impressive here. 46% increase in vehicle sales for Carvana. Yeah,

46% jump in vehicle sales. Bloomberg did point out crunching the numbers that 373 million net income came chiefly from loan sales, which accounted for $273 million of that figure. Another 158 million they say came from gains on warrants that the company holds an insurance company route. Without those two sources, Carvana would have would have lost money on that basis. But more important,What they see ahead, the company does expect to grow profits and sales in the second quarter, second quarter and the year. Retail gross profit per unit, that's another important metric investors watch for this one. That rose to 3,308. That beat estimates.

Ithought there was an interesting comment from Piper Sandler, analyst Alexander Potter, who covers this stock. Um, he said it's sustainably growing, but also said it's possible to argue that Carvana's valuation has gotten ahead of itself. But in a market characterized by so much unease.We think investors will find it difficult to ignore Carvana's fundamental momentum. In other words, everything's relative, especially at a time like this. Yeah,

investors are worried that stock has had a move. Yeah, right. Meanwhile, shares of Exxon soaring higher today following better than expected earnings in the top and bottom line. So reports Q1 results that beat expectations. They raised the forecast of for a full year 25. They now expect revenue between 2.6% and 2.7 billion. That does represent about 20%.7% growth at the midpoint. Barclays is overweight this name, says strength across the business. Management expecting record annual bookings this year, says demand still multi-year in length, and they take their target here to 735.

Yeah, and this is a maker of body armor, by the way, for people who are not familiar with the company and defense products. Um, and speaking of stocks that have done amazingly well, it is up, it's more than doubled over the past year. It's up about 120%.And then going to a very different type of thing that you wear Crocs. The shares of Crocs Hier following better than expected earnings for the first quarter. The shoe company did withdraw its guidance for 2025 amid tariff uncertainty like so many other companies have, but still coming out with the adjusted earnings per share of $3 which beat analysts estimates here, revenue little changed year over year but better than had beenestimated.

Yeah, so it did withdraw the outlook.Talked about macroeconomic uncertainties, uh, did say Crocs and hey do brands they, they highlighted contribute to what they called outperformance with gross margins, operating margins, just CPS and cash flow they said come in above

plan, although I guess hey dude, not doing quite as well as Crocs. You got any hey

dudes? No hey dudes, no crocs. No, no

crocs, no croc. Wait, not

anti crocs. Crocs

in your household?

No, I don't believe so.Wow, maybe the six year old has the little,

I would be surprised if she didn't have some, but maybe that's not that big anymore. I'll report. My kids are teens now. Maybe, you know, maybe

got hand me downs. Does that work? I to

you. Oh, they destroy the crocs. Other shoes, well, shoes in general get destroyed. OK, coming up, shares of Oscar Health rallying again today on the back of its latest earnings report. We'll hear from the company's CEO on the other side. Stick around, Mortymark domination still to come.Oscar Health and insurance technology company soaring over the last two days after topping earnings estimates on the top and bottom line. Joining us now, Mark Bertolini, Oscar Health CEO to break down the numbers, as well as our health care reporter, uh, Angeli Kamlani. Mark, thank you so much for being with us. It is fantastic to see you first of all.Um, and, and your numbers really interesting. In particular, I saw a lot of commentary around your costs being better than estimated. So first, I just wanted to kick us off with you telling us a little bit about that, how you sort of got costs down to beat the street and what contributed to that.

Well, there are two pieces to it. One is the leverage of growth. Um, so, you know, we've grown since I joined by almost a million members, um, in the last 2 years. So that's part one. But part two is that we have been using large language models for a number of years now. Um, our founders have a relationship with OpenAI. Um, Josh Kushner, who's one of our founders actually had, um, was one of the first investors in OpenAI.And so we've been using these models and prior to this year, we had implemented 20 large language models and then we're implementing 10 so far this year, um, where we have reduced our operating costs by 1660 basis points.Mark, it's Angela here. Really good to see you again. Uh, talk to me about that and how Oscar is really doing this, you know, in a field where you're competing with some of the larger insurers. I know, you know, there, there aren't as many competing in the ACA marketplace as before, but you have been focusing a lot on technology.Oscar's reputation started there so how does what Oscar is doing, is it, is it scalable? Is it something that we can see, you know, some of these large vertically integrated organizations kind of mimic considering that they are struggling with costs right now?Well actually, the, the, the biggest part about implementing AI at scale is that you have to have a single version of the truth in the data set.And so Oscar, by its history, is the first new insurance, health insurance platform to be built in the industry since 1972, and we have a single source of truth on the data. So we don't have multiple versions of Mark Bertolini running around, thank God. Um, and, and so the whole idea is, is that we have a single version of the truth, we can use that data effectively.Now we didn't start on the clinical side right away. We started in the back office, um, and we started on things like making information available for members. So in 2024 in January, we grew by 600,000 lives. We did that with 200 less people and better service standards than we did the year before when we grew by 100,000 lives.So the model is, is what can we do to get people information more quickly? How can we support our brokers in enrolling members into our plan, all those sort of backroom kind of things that make it simpler and easier to do business with us. This year we've implemented some interesting models. We have one that intakes people and gets us a sense of their conditions that they want to address and allows us then to provide.Support through our virtual medical group to help them get that care. The other is sort of what I would call a system, a symptom checker. So think of back in the day, WebMD and others coming forward with all this online information. We now have a chatbot that allows you to take you through the symptom checker and a way to say, OK, what, what do I do next? What do I need to do? What do I need to understand?Fair, and I know you and I've talked a lot about, you know, how insurers are operating, how the, you know, the entire industry really needs an overhaul. This is just an example of that. I wanna talk about also we saw your former place, uh, at, uh, exit the ACA marketplace, and I know you're focusing a lot more on ICRA right now, but talk to me about what that does really for the entire marketplace and what that means for uh for members and their, you know, what's available for them.Actually, one of the interesting things that is we've, I've worked here for the last couple of years and understood the way people buy, um, a couple of important things. Um, the more players in the market,The better, in large part because everybody has narrow networks in the Affordable Care Act.And narrow networks allow you to get a lower price point because you're moving margin, you're moving revenue to fewer players, and they get shares as a result.That is counterintuitive to what we do in the employer market, where you have large numbers of employees and you have large networks which actually have higher cost points.So if you have more players and they all have narrow networks, and currently today 75% of physicians in the US are in the Affordable Care Act networks somewhere, if I'm a buyer, instead of me having to buy what my employer offers me, I can buy at a better price point as an individual in the individual market because I can find my network with my plan and design that works for me.The plan design is important because it's about my risk and what I need to cover, whereas with an employer, they pick an average down the middle for their employees, and nobody likes to be considered to be average, um, but we have fewer solutions to pick from.And given that in the ACA now, 95% of all enrollment growth comes through um a broker, brokers are helping us get people into the right plans.So that's why the individual market works better from a cost point. That's why the more players in, the better, because we have access to the providers that anybody needs. So our view is we don't need to get all the members. We want the members that need our products and our networks. We want to serve them well at a price point that for the last 3 years has been below or at the cost of inflation.

Mark, I wanna ask you beyond Oscar though, because obviously, as Angellie mentioned, you're a veteran of the industry. You led Aetna, um, for more than a decade or you were at Aetna for more than a decade. Um, it feels like to many, at least for many patients, they feel like.The system is broken, right? They're not happy with it. This is not new. We've seen it bubble up in new and dangerous ways over the past year or so. Um, what do you think is sort of the biggest issue there? What's the biggest challenge? What needs to be fixed the most?

I think it's what, uh, so we've moved healthcare beyond population health and beyond disease management to individual health. And individual health needs, means I need to have my provider that I use, I need to have my product that works best for me.Those are the important things for me as a member. So if I can find my doctor in a plan design that allows me to cover what I need to get covered, instead of what my employer buys for me, which isn't bought all that cost effectively.Um, versus what can happen in the individual market, I'm better off. So a lot of the things members complain about is prior authorizations are all the things that, you know, if I, I know what my concerns are for my health, I know what I need, why am I having to go through the insurance company to get it approved?So we've, you know, there are products that are now being launched that allow people to have frictionless care, and those frictionless care models allow me to get what I need on my terms at my costs. And that's what everywhere else in our economy, we can get that. In healthcare, we can't. Somebody else buys it for me and tells me, here, you have to use it, and oh, by the way, I want you to pay 15% of the premium.

Yeah, that sounds like a good summary of what people don't like about it. Mark, we got to leave it there, unfortunately, we always love talking to you, so, uh, come back again and, and talk to us soon and thanks, of course, to Angelli as well.

Good to see you about.

An American will be the next pontiff. Cardinal Robert Francis Privost has been elected as the 267th Pope. He will now be known as Pope Leo the 4th, and he's the first US born Pope. Privost 69 years old. He's from Chicago. He's a graduate of Villanova University in Philadelphia, and he spent much of his career as a missionary in South America. He served as a bishop in Peru.And he most recently led a powerful Vatican office for bishop appointments. Priebus was elected by Catholic cardinals on the 4th ballot of the conclave in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, addressing the crowd in Saint Peter's Square Square, Leo paid tribute to the late Pontiff Francis, urging the crowd to remember his predecessor's legacy before outlining his vision for the Catholic Church.

Automakers Slate creating buzz in the electric vehicle space. The Bezos-backed EV startup is planned to manufacture vehicles in the United States. And here to share some more news about the company is Slate CEO Chris Barman. And joining us is also Yahoo Finance senior autos reporter Prainian. Welcome to you both. Chris, great to see you here on set.

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

So let's start with this news, Chris. This is a new financing round I hear. Walk us through it.

Yeah, well, first, um, tell you a little bit about Slate, and then I can explain where we are with our financing. So if you, um, aren't familiar with Slate, we're, um, a new vehicle company we just announced two weeks ago, and our mission is to bring the affordable vehicle back to Americans. So, um, we've designed a vehicle at a price point of about $25,000. We build it in a single configuration, but it's been built out of a platform to be highly accessorized. So we want to put the power back into the hands of the consumer.And let them decide what features and accessories they want to put on the vehicle. So we've been quietly working on this for about 3 years. Um, we've gone through a couple rounds of funding. So, um, Jeff Bezos was our lead in our first round, um, the Walter Group in our second round, um, we also have General Catalyst as an investor, and we've raised nearly $700 million.So that's a new figure there. I know there's a lot of reporting, much less than that, but that it takes a lot of money to build a brand new automaker, doesn't it? Yeah, it takes a lot of capital investment, but we're being really wise in how we're deploying it and what we're using it on. Um, our model is that we really, um, want to minimize that. So when we thought about the vehicle and how we would bring it to market, um, one of the, um, decisions that we made is that the exterior panels are made of a composite.And in doing that it allowed us to not have to have a stamping operation to stamp the exterior sheet metal. We don't need a paint operation, um, very significant investment in those 400 million plus that you have to put in. So we're being wise about our capital. You might wonder, OK, how then do you get the color into the vehicle if it's a composite? So it's, um, molded in color in a slate gray, but again it's designed to be accessorized. So we've designed it up front to be very easy to wrap the vehicle.And we'll provide a wrap kit as an accessory if somebody would like to choose a specific color and um it'll be easy to do that. It's also um as a truck it can be converted from a two passenger truck into a 5 passenger SUV. So the idea is that the owner of the vehicle can change it out.Um, as they acquire the vehicle or um as their budget or their life changes so they can buy it and use it as a truck, but if later they end up they have an expanding family, they need a little more seating space. They don't have to sell the vehicle, they can keep it and turn it into a 5 passenger SUV.

So you'vetalked a little bit about how you're keeping that cost down then with some of those moves that you.Made. What about in the tariff environment? I know it's made in the US, but are all the what about the parts of it and the metal that's being imported to to make it, etc.

Yeah, so we've um been designing it and it will be manufactured in the US, um, we're really focused on and want to reindustrialize America so it'll also be produced in Warsaw, Indiana, um, in a facility that was previously used for, um, printing catalogs and phone books, so it had shuttered in September of 2023.Its footprint is ideal for us. It's about 1.4 million square feet. Um, other manufacturing facilities are 3 million plus, but since we don't have the stamping operation, the paint operation, we're able to really consolidate on that. We were very focused through the process that.We wanted to also source American parts so we have a high number of US source parts within the vehicle, so we'll be very insulated against it.

Is that, is that really hardto do right now though? because I imagine even automakers that were sourcing from outside of the US, they're now trying to get also the US made parts to, you know, so is there a lot, is there more competition.In other words,for parts,

um, I think you know others will be shifting their strategy. Uh, it's, it's not as easy in automotive that you can just like, you know, pick up and change from one to the other. Um, what we've seen though is we've locked in, um, almost 80% of our partners already, so there's a small amount left that we have to do. We've locked in our battery partner, um, SKO.Um, their plant in commerce, Georgia will be producing our battery, which is, you know, a big component for the vehicle. So Chris, you know, you guys are talking about a 2026 late launch cars come off the line, and then by 2027 full ramp up 150,000 vehicles a year. Um, how do you envision that happening and do you see enough demand for that many vehicles in the future? Yeah, so for us.We believe that we'll be able to ramp and have a successful launch when we start again with this platform that we have with the blank slate. We have about 500 parts to the vehicle where other vehicles as they're manufactured with their option packages and the complexity, it's about 2500 parts so it makes it a lot more complex to bring up.That type of operation, so we see that we'll have a faster path forward to get to that 150,000 units a year that we'll be able to produce, um, you know, in the two weeks that, um, we, um, since we've announced in that we've been, um, seeing, uh, you know, a high amount of reservations coming in for the vehicle so indications are that.Um, the demand is out there. People are very interested, can't share that yet, but we're doing really well. But if you think about the market itself, um, 55 million vehicles are transacted every year, about 15 of those are new, 40 of those are used. Average cost of a new vehicle about $50,000 a year, or a $900 monthly payment. Average cost of a used vehicle is about $27,000 500 dollars monthly payment.And there was a recent study done that showed that if you make $100,000 a year to have balanced personal finances you would put about $400 towards your monthly payment. So it's a stretch for individuals who make $100,000 a year to get into, um, even an average used vehicle. 70% of individuals and households make less than $100,000 a year. So there's a large number of people that are out looking for a vehicle field their only choice is a used vehicle.And will be priced in the mid-20 below $20,000 with the federal incentives. It starts to get that monthly payment into um about, you know, $350 a month. So you're within that balance financials and it also gets individuals into a vehicle that will be.Is designed to be an NCAP, you know, new car assessment program 5 star insurance institute for highway safety top safety pick. It'll come with a warranty so it gives an individual the opportunity to get into a new vehicle that's safer, more reliable, has a warranty, and can give them peace of mind about the product that they're driving.

Chris, so good to see you and to have you on set. Appreciate it. Thank

you. Thanks for having me.

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