AI demand, defense spending and SpaceX drive the market 7/7/26

 Thursday, July 16, CNBC Sport and Boardroom join Fanatics Fest for Game Plan.
 Groundbreaking ideas shaping the future of sports and entertainment.
 Request your invited CNBC events.com slash game plan.
 Ships are down, I'm Morgan Brennan, and this is your morning call.
 Good Tuesday morning, let's get a check on US stock futures after the NASDAQ's first
 positive session in three yesterday.
 The Dow is sitting in an all time high, closing above 53,000 for the first time ever in
 trading on Monday, and you can see right there it's a mixed picture on your screen.
 S&P is poised to open lower by 13 points.
 The Dow popping another 151 points here, pre-market NASDAQ being dragged lower by what we've
 seen in Samsung and the semiconductor trade overall, and you can see shares of NASDAQ down
 263, 264 points right now, pre-market.
 We're also watching SpaceX ahead of the first day trading in the NASDAQ 100.
 We've got much more on that in just a moment.
 You can see shares of SpaceX down about 2% pre-market right now, trading around $157.50 per
 share.
 Treasuries, if we get a check there, we've got the 30-year yields at its highest since
 early June.
 As you can see on your screen, yields are higher across the curve, US 10-year treasury
 yielding 4.5% even right now, Fed sensitive at 2-year treasury yielding 4.14%.
 And let's get a check on Energy 2 as investors continue to monitor Hormuz traffic on going
 tanker strikes, and the narrative is shifting from global supply glut as some of this supply
 gets moving to what is it going to take to refill inventories and coffers, and that's
 pushing prices higher this morning.
 WTI trading up 1.3% $69 and change per barrel and Brent crude up a similar amount and trading
 just below $73 a barrel are above gasoline, basically flat natural gas higher this morning
 as well.
 To this morning's top stock story though, that is Samsung.
 The stock sinking in South Korea, despite below out earnings for its latest quarter operating
 profits jumping 19-fold compared to a year ago, chip names in Asia and around the world
 following Samsung's lead lower, you can see Samsung shares closing down about 7%, Lisa
 Kim is in Singapore with more on the trade and the takeaways from the report, Lisa.
 Hey Morgan, you're right, Samsung Electronics forecast, a second quarter operating profit
 will jump 19-fold from the same period last year, coming in at around 58 billion US beating
 analyst estimates.
 It's Samsung's third consecutive quarter of posting record operating profit, and that
 company is set to announce a full breakdown of its Q2 earnings later this month.
 But despite earnings guidance that beat expectations, Samsung shares plunged around 9% at one point.
 This as investors took profit, and some of them grew concerned about the sustainability
 of the record earnings.
 But with even with today's sell-ups, Samsung shares are up 130% this year.
 Investor jitters spread to South Korea's SK Heinix, Korea's benchmark index cost be dropped
 8% at one point, triggering the market operator to halt trading for 20 minutes.
 And price action out of South Korea dragged Japanese AI stocks lower as well.
 These chip maker Kyoxias lit 11% and Softbank Group lost more than 3% underperforming the
 benchmark index in K225.
 All right, Lisa Kim, thank you.
 By the way, your hair looks fabulous.
 I meant to say that to you yesterday.
 Chips stock weakness across Europe as well.
 Let's check in with our Karen show in London, Karen.
 Morgan, good morning to what we're seeing globally may be somewhat of a dress rehearsal for
 those US chips because we are weathering heavy losses now across some of the
 those chip names this morning in Europe, the pullback in the Asian session.
 We morphed across into the European trade and the clients coming as we saw those strong
 earnings from Samsung electronics, those still sparking jitters around the AI boom with
 soaring operating profits already priced in and really failing to offset concerns around
 the data center rollout.
 Text stocks are leading those declines as a sector on the Pan European Stock 600 and only trade
 if we break it down to the European chip names you can see.
 The selling is mounting throughout the morning, we're done roughly two to three odd percent
 that ramped up to four percent.
 Now it's in the range of five odd percent plus ASMR holdings down.
 One of the big plays ASMR, Infinian, Donna, almost six percent in the trade, sus micro
 tech out of Germany down close to 10% at this hour.
 So that's selling really accelerating, but again, Morgan, let's just put this into context.
 You've had gains in the likes of ST micro to the tune of 157 percent already so far these
 year.
 So we're taking a little bit of the froth off.
 It's not typical to see triple digit gains in the European market and a stock.
 So it is very much a play on the data set of chips.
 We've had the gains.
 No, we've got the retreat and some of those digestion issues back to you.
 Yeah, take the profit where you can.
 And your hair looks marvelous as well, Karen.
 Thank you so much.
 Karen Chow joining us from London.
 Thanks, Morgan.
 Thank you.
 Let's get more in Samsung's earnings.
 And the ripple effects on the tech trade, Daniel Newman, CEO of the tech research firm
 in the future.
 Join me now, Daniel.
 It's great to have you on the show.
 I mean, Samsung blow out results, and yet the stock moves lower here.
 How much of this is profit taking?
 How much of this is concerned about how much higher prices can go?
 And in the case of Samsung, specifically, the fact that this also puts light on this
 new deal, the compensation packages with employees after they just struck a new deal
 with the union.
 Yeah.
 Good morning.
 Good morning, Morgan.
 I guess I'm not going to get a nice hair comment today.
 Look, I think broadly, the comments that your hosts that you just had on were right, there's
 profit taking.
 There's been incredible run-ups.
 In some cases, hundreds of percent, in some cases, close to thousands in a year with
 some of these memory names.
 And it's structurally nothing's changed.
 The demand we see is still there.
 And in fact, if anything, Samsung's numbers proved it that it has incredible pricing power.
 The supply constraint is very real.
 Demand is off the charts, and we don't see anything changing over the next few years.
 In fact, we see the acceleration in ASPs.
 We see continued acceleration and demand for memory.
 And we see continued demand for AI.
 Having said that, I do think that with runs like this, we do need some normalization.
 We do need some profit taking to take place.
 And with these kinds of announcements, Samsung, for instance, that small miss on revenue,
 that was supply-driven, and that was not driven by any problems with their demand in
 our opinion.
 But having said that, that gives the market that instinct gratification of saying, okay,
 maybe we're going to take a pause here.
 Maybe we should take some profits here.
 But overall, the trade is intact.
 We don't see any real issues for AI as a whole.
 Yeah.
 I mean, Samsung's dragging everything lower.
 I'm even just looking at a chart in the U.S., a chart in the U.S., 5.5%.
 When you break down the biggest memory players, where would you be investing right now?
 If long-term, the supply-demand dynamics continue to be mismatched, would you be buying
 in at these levels?
 And how to think about the supply that is coming online over the next couple of years?
 Yeah, across the portfolio of memory names, Samsung, Micron, and on S.K.
 Heinex.
 Our future microdys teams has all three of them as a buy.
 We continue to like the U.S. story here.
 We think Micron has some structural advantages.
 Being U.S. based, it doesn't have some of the shock issues.
 It could be related to tariffs or policy changes.
 We also think the S.K. Heinex U.S. listing, of course, S.K. is very close with Nvidia.
 It's done some very interesting strategic work alongside Nvidia.
 Despite Nvidia's sort of waffling in the market in terms of its price having moved sideways
 for a long time, it's still going to be the largest creator of revenue.
 From all of this AI demand, it's going to be the largest generate of profit.
 And so, we like S.K. and if I was going to put it in order, I'd say it's Micron S.K.
 Samsung.
 Samsung's made a lot of improvements over the last year.
 I mean, that company was having significant problems in its foundry and its memory business.
 It's turned around record profits, and, of course, it's made more money in a quarter
 than it made in over a year.
 So, it's all moving in the right direction, and this demand is going to be valuable to
 all three of these companies.
 That's how we rate them right now.
 I'm looking at your notes and you have some really interesting insights here in terms
 of that intersection between the marketplace and policy, whether it's in Washington, whether
 it's in Seoul, what that means, and potential risks associated with that, too.
 Yeah, I mean, of course, we know that policy has been driven over this administration
 to favor U.S. build.
 Of course, Samsung builds in the U.S., S.K. has expanded its presence here in the U.S.,
 and the front is an American company.
 We continue to see, you know, week after week, different announcements about how China
 is handling U.S. tech, how U.S. tech plans to allow for Chinese models.
 This is all going to continue to play out.
 It's still very, very early.
 I know some people like to think we're in the middle of the AI game.
 I continue to say, we're really still in the pre-game, we're kind of out in the parking
 lot, you know, we're tailgating right now.
 It's, you know, only been half a year, Morgan, since we really found the first valuable
 models to apply to business to start to say, oh, wow, AI could really transform what
 our enterprise is doing.
 So while we're seeing trillions of dollars, I think we have a $10 plus trillion forecast
 for how much AI infrastructure spend is going to take place between now in 2030.
 Wow.
 It's still early in data centers, even if you look at like Nvidia's Black Roll, it's newest
 shipping chip.
 It's still a low percentage implementation where we're still using a lot of two and three
 generation all, so it's still very, very early.
 Okay.
 Dan Newman, great to have you on.
 Thank you.
 Thank you.
 Well, we're turning now to Turkey, the 2026 NATO Summit, kicking off in Ankara today.
 Leader is not only focused on spending and cross-Atlantic relations, but also the flurry
 of headlines around the Russia-Ukraine war.
 Our Steve Sedgwick is on the ground and he has the latest for us, Steve.
 Yeah, great to see you, Morgan, let the president's juice touch down in the next couple of hours
 and my goodness, me yet again after the euphoria of the US getting what it wanted last time
 around in the Hague one year ago.
 The US absolutely got real firm commitments from 31 out of 32 NATO nations to actually start
 spending some serious, serious money.
 Let's recap.
 It's 5% in total is now the target from the previous 2% of that 3.5% is pure defense.
 Another 1.5% is an infrastructure and associated spending.
 But the problem is, for Mark Rutte who's been trying really hard, the Secretary-General
 of NATO, to keep Mr Trump and the administration inside, the problem is now it seems that the US
 wants action a lot quicker than the timeline pointed out originally last year at the Hague,
 which was to get there by 2035.
 In fact, under Pete Hegsett, the Pentagon's having a review which is saying, okay, we're
 going to have a six month review.
 We're going to kind of judge all of you and some of you you're going to pass with flying
 colours, your ball technicians, your Poland's of this world, they're going to be 4% plus.
 You're going to be fine.
 What happens to the nations who are going to be not moving quickly enough for the Pentagon
 and for the administration?
 Then there are concerns that actually there'll be a split support from the US.
 Some nations will get US support others won't.
 In fact, we've already seen some troops being reduced from Germany, surprisingly in the
 last month or so.
 So we're coming into a mouse room here where the president, of course, he's also annoyed
 about the perceived lack of support from the Europeans for Operation Epic Fury.
 Steve, we talk a lot about re-industrialization here in the US, but this is playing out in Europe
 as well.
 So as the US does pull back on spending and contributions to NATO, how quickly can these
 European countries actually step in and produce what's necessary to hold the front lines
 and to establish deterrents?
 Morgan, that is the question.
 It's all about burden shifting.
 I spoke to Matthew Whitaker, who is the US NATO Ambassador here, and he said, look, we want
 to support the Europeans.
 We do support NATO, but actually the Europeans have got to have the burden shift towards
 them.
 Absolutely.
 I think everyone in Europe realized it, but the speed of transition is what the arguments
 are about already.
 Mark Rutger is saying that we're already spending over $90 billion more.
 In fact, there's high as $139 billion in nominal terms more than we were a year ago.
 That is meaningful.
 And he's giving Donald Trump the credit for it, trying to keep him on side, but absolutely
 there are potentially gaps in the defence.
 And the hearing lies the issue.
 If Vladimir Putin thinks there are gaps and think there are gaps in the US commitment to
 Article 5, which is mutual defence, will he start testing more and more the defences
 across the board of Europe as well?
 These are some of the big questions, which hopefully we'll get some resolution on.
 But in terms of that production as well, there's a massive conference about 400 meters
 up the road from here today, which is called the Defence Investment Forum as well, where
 actually big US companies and other defence contractors are there, and we're already
 hearing some noise from the likes of Raytheon and Lockheed, that actually they may share
 the production of key assets such as Patriot missiles and the launchers with European
 partners as well.
 That would be a big step forward.
 Yeah, it would make a lot of sense.
 And obviously a big boon for the US defence contractors, especially as they pave the way
 for some of those homegrown companies in Europe to be able to flex and realise scale, too.
 Steve Sedgwick, great to have you on.
 We'll be checking this with you through the next couple of days, appreciate it.
 A lot more to come here on Morning Call, including end of the road for the USA's World Cup
 Championship ambitions, courtesy of Belgium, highlights business implications ahead, plus
 sexual assault allegations rock a critical Senate race in Maine, and one that could decide
 congressional control come November, later, praised from the West Wing, what Walmart
 just did that's putting it on the President's good side, and maybe consumers, too, a very
 busy hour still ahead when Morning Call returns.
 By the dip and save on CNBC Pro, 24-7 access to market moving news and interviews across
 three global live streams, for 59-99 at CNBC.com slash Join CNBC Pro, terms and conditions apply.
 Welcome back to Morning Call.
 United States hopes for a deep World Cup run on their home turf have been dashed.
 The team losing four to one to Belgium in the round of 16 last night, even with superstar
 of low balligan in the lineup after his red card suspension was controversially lifted
 by FIFA.
 Belgium reaching the quarterfinals for the third time in the past four World Cups.
 But the red devils aren't the favorite to win at all.
 Traders on Kalshi are putting their money behind France, then Spain, and defending champion
 Argentina.
 Well, let's talk more about the business of the World Cup with Patrick Rish, director of
 the sports business program at Washington University, who was up late watching the game
 last night at a packed sports bar in Los Angeles.
 Patrick, have you even been to sleep yet?
 Are you just pushing through here to have this conversation?
 I'm pushing through.
 I pushed through for you, Morgan, and I'm so glad that the Mexico did not go further than
 the U.S., because I had some bets with some of my Mexican students that I was going
 to have to wear a mariachi costume in the class when the fall semester begins.
 So thankfully, we win as far as Mexico.
 Yeah, rough night last night for the USA.
 Yeah, although it is very disappointing that all the host countries have been knocked
 out.
 That being said, how do you see the actual winners in this World Cup, especially when
 you think about the impact on economic growth, the impact on the jobs market, which arguably
 questionable after the results we got with non-farm pay rolls last week, and the impact
 to media companies and prediction markets, and everybody else as the world is engaged.
 Yeah, I mean, it's great.
 The topic of economic impact at these major events is a wonderful topic, and it's a controversial
 topic because, yes, you have visitors coming to the community.
 They're spending money on hotels, on restaurants.
 It's great visibility for these host markets.
 There's great civic pride.
 But a lot of these host cities, it's a bidding war, and they've got to spend a lot of money
 to bring these events and to talk FIFA into bringing their event to their host city.
 So there's money spent on security, infrastructure costs that isn't necessarily reflected in
 some of these economic impact reports.
 So at the end of the day, I think that these events, it's great for the host cities in
 terms of the visibility, the exposure for the community, and there is some economic impact.
 I would just look at, with a little bit of caution at the actual size of those numbers
 because there's a lot of, again, infrastructural costs, security costs, other costs that are
 not factored in that have to be netted out.
 Yeah, so in light of that, I mean, there's been a lot of attention paid to the fact that
 the business model around FIFA coming into this specific World Cup was restructured and
 to your point, perhaps, at least on paper, budget shortfalls for some of the cities that
 are hosting these games as well.
 Yeah, for sure.
 And I will say you asked the question, what did I think of this event?
 And again, when you have cities bidding on these events against each other, trying to
 win FIFA's favor, there's a reason Chicago decided not to pursue this, right?
 And part of it was they looked at the economics, didn't make sense for them.
 But I think it's great that they expanded the tournament.
 There was a concern that if you expand from 32 to 48 that you'd have a dilution of talent,
 I think we've seen some amazing soccer.
 So I don't fault FIFA for expanding the tournament.
 I don't fault these hydration breaks.
 People are up in arms about the hydration breaks, the small three minute breaks that are
 happy in the middle of halves, the soccer purists hate it.
 I actually love it, because it's great for being able for the networks to generate ad
 revenue.
 It has tactical advantages, so teams can kind of huddle briefly to talk things over.
 And I think it brings the casual fans.
 So I think the winners in terms of bringing in more people to the sports soccer in North
 America, certainly this World Cup has done it.
 Yeah.
 Prediction markets and the role they've been playing in all of this, how is it feeding
 back into the broader flywheel?
 Oh, absolutely Morgan, absolutely.
 And part of this is just the proliferation of sports gambling.
 And I know prediction markets are not exactly the same, but it's obviously a close cousin.
 There is absolutely more involvement in this space, because you have more states that
 have legalized gambling, the cow cheese of the world, they're just more engaged.
 And I think people, especially the millennials and the Gen Z's that are really passionate
 about soccer, they are competitive and so these kinds of markets and that kind of action
 really is going to take a higher position when you have a sport like soccer that they're
 so into.
 Yeah.
 I just asked that's one more question.
 And that is the pricing we've seen and what it's meant for filling stadiums, filling
 hotels near some of these stadiums, et cetera, has it been surprising to you?
 How to game out the economics around that?
 Well, I will tell you just one thing real briefly, if the US had won, the quarterfinals would
 have been here in LA and before the match, they were 2800 was the cheapest to get in.
 Those prices dropped like a stone.
 The minute Belgium won, those prices are now down to 1300.
 Yeah, the prices were high.
 We saw a lot of full stadiums, though.
 So I was a little bit surprised that these prices, as crazy as it sounds, didn't necessarily
 price out everybody, but clearly one of the delicate things in every pro sports team in
 North America wrestles with this is you don't want to price out the average Joe or Jane
 fan.
 And unfortunately, I think that this tournament really did that.
 Okay.
 Patrick Rish, great to have you on.
 Go get some rest.
 I will.
 Thank you.
 Thank you.
 Straight ahead.
 What's SpaceX joining the Nasdaq 100 means for the stock and with the streets already
 saying ahead of the trading day, we're going to break all that down.
 But first, go out and buy a Dell computer.
 He's not doing it for that.
 But I'll bet his business, Brad, has gotten even bigger.
 I have a son that loves air.
 He loves air laptop.
 They have to tell you, no, I want a Dell.
 Look at him.
 That money back one way or the other.
 And then I'll ask for another 6 billion to 50.
 Well, a check on shares of Dell this morning after closing sharply higher yesterday following
 those comments from the president during his opening bell ringing ceremony at the White
 House in the Oval Office yesterday.
 You can see shared taking a breather this morning down just about 2% free market.
 This is now the second time in a couple of months that President Trump has publicly told
 Americans to quote, go buy Dell will shares this year of more than 225%.
 We got more in call back after this.
 Buy the dip and save on CNBC Pro 24 seven access to market moving news and interviews
 across three global live streams for 59 99 at CNBC dot com slash
 join CNBC Pro terms and conditions apply.
 Well, come back to morning call watching shares of SpaceX today as the $2 trillion
 market cap company officially joins the NASAC 100.
 That will happen at the start of trading officially later this morning.
 It's already been included, but that's where you'll see the impact.
 The company joining the index just 15 days after its stock market debut on June 12th among
 the fastest inclusions ever.
 Thanks to the NASDAQs revised rules for newly listed companies looking to enter widely
 tracked benchmarks.
 Now, according to a recent JP Morgan estimate, it enters the NASAC 100 at three times its
 raw float of $75 billion that translates to an index weight of about 1.3%.
 That inclusion expected to unleash a wave of passive buying for mutual funds and ETFs that
 track the index and estimated $4.3 billion according to JPM last month.
 But while that inclusion could put upward pressure on the stock, upcoming expiring lockups
 and there is a tranche of them could likely add downward pressure as insiders begin to
 unload shares.
 This is something we talked about with former NASAC CEO Bob Greiffel's yesterday.
 So, coming in today, half a dozen Wall Street firms initiating coverage of the stock with
 buy rating.
 Working Stanley, the most bullish of the bunch, and they were all pretty bullish, giving
 it a $300 price target and playing an 87% gain from Monday's close of $160.42.
 That was courtesy of Analyst Adam Jonas.
 This, by the way, a SpaceX conducted a transporter launch just about two hours ago
 from California, a rideshare mission carrying 81 payloads for various customers as it is
 known to do.
 So we will keep an eye on SpaceX today and what it means more broadly for the QQQs and
 others.
 But as we had to break, let's get a quick check on Bitcoin after a modest bounce back
 yesterday.
 On speculation that the asset may become eligible for those newly launched Trump accounts.
 Speaking with reporters yesterday, the president saying, quote, I've become a big crypto
 guy.
 Bitcoin down this year, more than 20%, and of course, getting those comments from the Oval Office
 yesterday, right after strategy sold some of its Bitcoin holdings.
 You can see Bitcoin down about 1% right now trading around $63,122.
 We're back after this.
 I'm Morgan Brennan.
 Welcome back to Morning Call.
 Let's get a check on you as the stock futures after the NASDAQ's first positive session
 in three.
 Dow sitting at an all time high, poised to add to those gains this morning, indicated
 to open up 195 points right now, S&P poised to open down nine points.
 The NASDAQ, the big loser this morning, being dragged lower by chip stocks in sympathy
 with Samsung despite blowout earnings in Korea.
 You can see NASDAQ shares down 269 points in pre-market here, but the Dow closing above 53,000
 for the first time ever yesterday.
 So we'll continue to track the rotation we've been seeing in this market.
 The big story of the morning, though, as I just mentioned, shares of Samsung Electronics
 sinking in South Korea despite those gangbusters results for the latest quarter, dragging
 other chip names in Asia and Europe and here in the US pre-market, lower, but you can
 see that right there on your screen, SK, high nix down 6%, Samsung closing down 7%,
 and other names also down significantly.
 We've checked down some chip stocks here in the US where you see a lot of red as well,
 times like micron, down 6% pre-market, and advanced micro, also down about 4% other
 names lower too.
 Memory stocks, in general, getting hit treasuries with a 30-year yield at its highest since
 early June.
 If we take a look at the bond market right now, yields in general climbing higher across
 the curve.
 US 10-year treasury yielding 4.499% right now.
 Let's get a check on precious metals because gold is at a two-week high.
 It's been reigniting here in the last couple of trading sessions, but as soon as I said
 that, you can see the screen and we're actually now turning lower here.
 Gold is down about 7.10% of 1%.
 We're trading around 43, 36 and ounce for gold.
 Silver also taking a breather.
 As is platinum, we're watching Energy 2 as investors continue to monitor the straight
 of Hormuz and the traffic through there.
 You can see crude is actually moving higher this morning, up about 1% for WTI, trading
 at $69 a barrel.
 Brent also up 1.3% trading, just below $73 a barrel.
 We're following reports about a pair of tankers being struck in the strait, so we keep
 an eye there.
 Checking some of the morning's latest headlines, though.
 Walmart is cutting prices on several summer barbecue staples, including ground beef, chips,
 coke, and Pepsi products.
 The announcement coming minutes after President Trump said on truth, social that Walmart
 was acting on his request.
 A statement by Walmart makes no mention of the White House's involvement in the decision,
 and the rollbacks went into effect last week.
 They also talked about this on their last earnings call.
 The fact they were going to start cutting prices on products as well.
 But you could see shares of Walmart are up 7.10% of 1%.
 The president's tone is more positive toward Walmart than last year, when the company said
 shoppers should prepare for higher prices due to tariffs.
 At the time, he said Walmart should eat the tariffs.
 Well, vertex, striking a deal to buy cronetics for about $10 billion, adding treatments for
 rare hormonal diseases to its portfolio.
 The deal values cronetics at $85 are shared.
 That's more than 100% premium to yesterday's closing price.
 And you could see how investors are reacting to that here, pre-market, with shares of cronetics
 up about 99% right now, vertex down just fractionally.
 MetA meantime says four US states are seeking $1.4 trillion in penalties, in a case accusing
 the company of designing Facebook and Instagram to addict younger users, and mislead the
 public about their safety.
 Those penalties were calculated based on laws in California, Colorado, Kentucky, and
 New Jersey.
 And if the state's were to win a trial in a court filing, MetA says those numbers aren't
 supported by evidence.
 Shares of MetA meantime are actually up about 1% pre-market.
 FI serve has reportedly held talks with several big US banks, including JP Morgan and Bank
 of America.
 So it's selling its debit card network.
 A deal, if it happens, would allow the banks to bypass federal caps on debit card fees
 under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Law.
 You can see Shares of FI serve spiking, 7% on this news.
 And you could get your hands on one of Jensen Wong's leather jackets.
 That's right, if the price is right.
 Sotheby's is auctioning off a Tom Ford jacket, worn by the Nvidia CEO during an event in Taiwan
 in 2023.
 The jacket is signed by Jensen Wong and is estimated to go for $40,000 to $60,000.
 The auction starts today.
 The proceeds will go to the nonprofit edge institute.
 Well we're following the latest in a major development around the midterm elections.
 Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner of Maine is facing growing calls to end his
 campaign after being accused of sexual assault.
 Emily Wilkins joins us now with the latest, Emily.
 Good morning, Morgan.
 Well, yeah, these are on the record accusations and they're being taken very seriously.
 Pressure is really building on Graham Platner to drop out in the hour since Politico broke
 the story.
 You've had numerous Democrats progressive advocates, major groups, all calling for Platner
 to withdraw.
 And that includes from Senators Ruben Gallego, Elizabeth Warren, Warren said in a statement
 that working families are counting on Democrats to win the Senate election in Maine
 to unrig our economy and hold Donald Trump accountable.
 With so much at stake, the best path forward is for Graham Platner to step aside as the
 Democratic nominee.
 Now Maine is an incredibly important Senate seat.
 It's a must win for Democrats.
 They'll need to flip four seats to win the chamber.
 But if they can't put up a strong candidate in Maine, which already has a Democratic governor
 and Senator, they're going to have to win a Republican controlled state, something like
 an Iowa or Texas, much more difficult to do.
 The primary PAC that's supporting Senate Democrats said they would be directing resources
 away from Maine for now, so long as Platner is the nominee.
 So of course, all eyes are on Platner to see if he will wind up withdrawing while Platner
 denied the allegations and a social media video.
 He also said he would be taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.
 And Platner is going to need to make that decision soon.
 Under Maine law, he only has until next Monday, July 13th, to drop out and be replaced on
 the ballot.
 And it's not clear at this point exactly who would replace him, Senate Democratic leader
 Chuck Schumer initially, of course, backed Maine governor Janet Mills, but her poll numbers
 and fund raising were so low that she wound up suspending her campaign before the primary.
 I've seen the number of names floated Morgan as far as who might be the person, but of
 course, the big question is on whether Platner is actually going to withdraw.
 Okay, we'll see how with the next few days bring us here, Emily, meantime, what does it
 mean for Susan Collins, Senator Collins?
 We've heard Senator Susan Collins, it means that she could be coasting her way to yet another
 reelection.
 I mean, Collins has already proven herself to be a very formidable opponent on the campaign
 trail.
 She's gone up against Democratic candidates who have had a ton of fundraising, a ton of
 support from the party and still managed to emerge victorious in part because of a lot
 of work that she's done to bring federal resources to Maine.
 And of course, Collins is the top appropriator.
 She is one of the main folks who gets to make the calls on where government funding is.
 And if she is able to continue, she could continue to provide a check on President Trump
 and the Trump administration from within the Republican Party for the next two years
 if she is successful in November.
 Okay, Emily Wilkins, thank you.
 Well, as we head to break, a check on shares of Galaxy Digital and Core Weave.
 Galaxy, delivering the first phase of power at its Helios Data Center campus in West Texas
 to Core Weave as part of a 15-year lease agreement, that development means the facility
 moves for a construction project to a revenue generating data center campus.
 Nonetheless, you could see shares of both companies are down a bit here, pre-market, we're
 back after this.
 Welcome back.
 We got a quick check on shares of Lockheed Martin, higher right now, fractionally, after
 closing down more than 1% yesterday that's following a more than $3 billion deal to
 buy naval defense company Ultra Maritime from PE firm AdVent.
 AdVent's making more deals this morning, taking its really last night, announcing it's
 taking a 7% stake in Italian rocket maker Avio for about $125 million, you could see
 shares of Avio, up almost 4% right now in European trading.
 But if we turn back to the action in Turkey, 2026 NATO Summit kicking off in Ankara today,
 leaders not only focused on spending across Atlantic relations, but also the flurry of headlines
 around the Russia-Ukraine war.
 In just about three hours, President Trump is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with
 Turkish President Erdogan, and joining me now is Roman Schweitzer, managing director at
 the Washington Research Group for TD Cowan.
 Roman, it's great to have you on.
 There's a lot to get to.
 I mean, just before we came into this conversation, we got more news from Lockheed Martin that
 it's a signed an MOU with Ryan Mattal, a JV pending here for Attackums.
 How does it speak to what we're seeing, not only in the U.S., when it comes to defense
 spending and this idea of a reestablishment of deterrence, but what we're seeing in Europe
 as well?
 Sure.
 We're going to it's great to see you, and there is a lot going on at this NATO Summit, and
 certainly the focus is on spending, and the alliance is bumping up headed north in
 terms of increasing spending to a 3.5 percent goal last year, the alliance year-over-year
 spending increased to 2.3 percent, so they are getting there, but still have a ways to
 go.
 The alliance is looking to make a lot of announcements, as we've seen, the co-production agreement
 with Lockheed Martin that you just referenced.
 There have been a number of other announcements this morning, so the alliance definitely wants
 to put its best foot forward for President Trump and is doing so both in spending and with
 some of these joint production deals between U.S. and European firms.
 I mean, we talk about here in the U.S. as we see a fiscal 2027 budget begin to come
 together and different pieces that are going to potentially, if lawmakers can get there,
 get to $1.5 trillion for next year.
 What is it going to take for some of our allies to be able to raise the money that's
 needed to boost defense levels as well?
 I mean, this has been a big issue in Germany.
 It's in focus right now in the U.K.
 There's some very clever deals and partnerships being put forward this week, too.
 Sure.
 Well, I mean, I think that's one of the complications for NATO, right?
 32 countries and all varying degrees of support, right?
 Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of Spain, Spain is a chronic underspender, has been critical
 of the Trump administration.
 So depending on where you are, proximity to Russia and Vladimir Putin and Ukraine, you're
 spending tends to vary greatly.
 Countries such as Finland or Poland might be more ambitious spenders or necessary spenders.
 And then, again, as you referenced, that does cause some level of spending, does cause
 some political problems or discomfort internally within government, as Prime Minister Kierst
 Armor from Great Britain can attest to.
 So, I think it's going to continue to be a challenge.
 It's one of the things that I hear from investors about what the long-term durability is.
 If there was to be a Russia, Ukraine ceasefire, would appetite for that spending go away or
 is the alliance committed to fully building, you know, it's arsenal and recommitting to
 sort of building up a European-focused defense that isn't so reliant on the U.S.
 Yeah.
 I mean, you just mentioned it's going to be in focus, especially with President Trump
 meeting with Ukraine Zelensky as well.
 But what do investors need to understand about where we're at in that Ukraine war right
 now?
 Well, I mean, by all accounts, Ukraine is winning or put another way of Vladimir
 Putin has some serious problems on his hand.
 Obviously, Ukraine has sort of used drones and other munitions, other domestically created
 munitions or domestically produced munitions to launch strategic attacks on Russian energy
 and actually to bring the war home to Moscow, right?
 So there's a public opinion aspect to this, but then there's a very real aspect of, you
 know, energy shortages and things like that.
 And then, technically, on the battlefield, I think most people would say the war is at
 a stalemate, or perhaps even sliding worse for Russia as Crimea is more under pressure
 and things like that.
 So, you know, Ukraine is as held off the Russians, Putin may or may not want to escalate,
 but I think there's also a fear across the alliance that Putin may want to do something
 dramatic, right?
 We've seen some reports about that, about him provoking NATO, making in drone incursions,
 trying to induce Belarus to join the war, things like that.
 So, you know, it's definitely a dangerous time, but again, the Ukrainians do seem to be
 doing very well on the battlefield and are getting continued support from both Europe
 and the U.S.
 All right, Roman Schweitzer, it's great to have you on.
 It's great to speak to you, as always.
 Appreciate it.
 Thank you.
 Straight ahead, morning call crew, TN up the trading day with the AI trade.
 Once again, under pressure this morning.
 Time for the call sheet, where we look at the topics driving the trading day ahead.
 Crew members today, Warren Pies, 314 research, I can't get there with my words.
 Steve Grasso of Grasso Global, also a CNBC contributor and Doug Bonaparte of Bonafide
 Wealth.
 Also, a member of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council, great to have all of you here.
 I'm going to kick this off with you, Grasso.
 Some some results were blow out and yet the stock understands 7% is pulling everything
 lower with it in the semiconductor space, your thoughts.
 Yeah, it's all margin, right?
 So it wasn't top line, it was all margin.
 So when you look at this, is this peak stock price, it could be not peak DRAM and price,
 but it is peak stock price for all parent purposes.
 These are not where you buy these commodity-based things in the cycle, you buy them basically
 a trough, or you buy them in the middle of the cycle, you can't buy them at 80% margins.
 They are the three players are 90% of the market share.
 So it's more against what's the reaction to the stock price?
 What have you done for me lately?
 The stock price should not be trading higher from here.
 Huh, okay.
 Warren, how do you see it, especially given the fact that there is arguably some profit taking
 after huge moves in semiconductors this year?
 Yeah, I mean, I think what Steve said is at a high level is correct, but when I think
 about how the years gone, when you think about South Korea, the cost is up 100% and 90%
 of that is two companies, so that's Samsung and SK, high-nix.
 And so you have to expect these trees don't grow to the sky.
 You're going to have pullbacks and the pullbacks can be especially sharp in these parabolic moves,
 even if there's earning support.
 And so one of the things we saw is that coming into July, last five July, the momentum factor
 has really suffered.
 So just basic price momentum as a factor within the S&P 500, even though July is a very
 positive seasonal month has been down each of the last five years.
 So we kind of expected to see this nasty rotation.
 So I think it's the right time of the year for that rotation and for some profit taking.
 When I zoom out, I think that the overall trend in trade is still intact, but like the
 month of July and into August is probably going to be kind of nasty as we level set this
 big semi-trade that's powered the first half of the year.
 Yeah, interesting.
 And of course, I think to that point, we have a Dow record high, closing about 53,000
 yesterday and some other parts of the market that have moved to record highs, unloved sectors
 in recent days and recent weeks, too.
 Doug, want to get your thoughts about this, especially as SK, high-nix comes to the US later
 this week.
 Yeah, absolutely.
 So I agree with our panelists here.
 You want to be very careful taking new positions right now with these prices.
 I think that's really good advice here, but it's hard to deny the fact that you are
 looking at a space that has insatiable appetite.
 So dollar cost averaging into a position for those who have not yet taken a position.
 This is where that FOMO can really bite you when volatility does show up.
 You will see some vicious straw downs in the short-term can't tell you when, but long-term
 look great.
 The entry point does matter here.
 Okay.
 Steve, SpaceX, joining the Nasak 100 today, your thoughts?
 Yeah, I think what you've seen the price action on the stock that sort of drifts sideways
 to lower, it means that people have already front-run the index add.
 But remember, it's a very small percentage of the float and it is flow weighted for these
 indices.
 So the more unlock happens, the more share, if you will, it has to chase it and pass them
 investing.
 So you're looking at a $27 billion no-sh at all chase for the entire complex, a pass
 of investing that has to buy SpaceX.
 So this is going to be a tiered approach, it's not going to be a one-off, but the price
 action tells me that many of the players have gotten ahead of it.
 I'm longing it.
 I'm not an allocation, I added to the allocation, I'm staying long yet, but I expect extreme
 volatility.
 I would say it probably has a good chance of touching that $135 price again, but I think
 it was really set up to move higher.
 Yeah, and in the meantime, by my count, nine Wall Street initiations, since last night,
 all of them very bullish to varying degrees, Warren, I want to get your thoughts on something
 else for tracking here, what I'm calling the Trump effect, whether it's NATO summit
 kicking off and defense spending numbers, whether it's the comments about Dell yesterday,
 Walmart, BTC, Bitcoin as well.
 What does that mean for the market and for these assets when the president weighs in?
 I mean, this is just the regime we're in.
 This has been the first, really the last 18 months going back to the liberation day in
 tariffs, and then through this year, and I think it's a tough market for many people
 who are quantitative to try and incorporate this Trump effect, or what he's going to
 tweet out next to the next truth social post.
 And so I think for the most part, it's a volatility inducer, but there are very few times
 where outside of geopolitics, I think the straight or move factor was a real thing where
 he was impacting it.
 But, you know, he can't just get Walmart to lower prices, for instance, just by tweeting
 it out.
 You know, I think there's a limit in maybe a diminishing effect, especially if we get
 through these midterms on the Trump effect.
 And so I think most traders will hope that it does diminish a little bit truthfully though.
 Okay.
 We got 20 seconds left.
 Doug, want to get your thoughts on this, especially since they know you're a long-time
 Bitcoin guy.
 Yeah.
 But on a Bitcoin perspective, super long-term, I don't think there's anything here in
 the short term that's going to shake the thesis out of someone who believes that we deserve
 a digital hard asset.
 And the last thing I would say is, you know, in particular, it's a native summit, you
 know, geopolitics is not a headline generator, nor, excuse me, is a headline generator.
 It is not a portfolio strategy.
 So, you know, repositioning things around a two-day summit, probably not something we're
 interested in doing.
 Okay.
 Thanks to our morning call crew.
 Great to have you all here.
 And entertainment, request your invited CNBCEvents.com slash game plan.