The Fight Against Cancer, Coal Markets & AI Demand 5/29/26

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 Selenme and go away, not this time.
 Futures are pointing towards a positive end for the month. I'm Dominic Chiu, and this is your morning call.
 I guess there's still time to sell in May. Good morning. I'm Dominic Chiu in for Morgan Bretton. US Talk Futures right now are actually pointing to the upside.
 Here was some modest gains for the S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, and DAW as well. By the way, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are sitting at fresh record highs.
 Futures right now catching a bit of a bid. The DAW is implied higher by a modest 68 points. The S&P had by about 9 points and the tech heavier NASDAQ 100 up by about 23 points implied at the opening bell.
 It's not though just the S&P 500 and NASDAQ. The Russell 2000 small cap index is also at a fresh record high. We've got more in that small cap story in just a moment.
 For the week, the Russell 2000 is leading the gains overall up by about 2% you can see here. The Russell 2000, the NASDAQ composite up by about 2 and a quarter percent and the S&P 500 up by about 1 full percent.
 As we close out training for May, it is the NASDAQ that's leading the gains. It is currently up over 8% on that month-to-date basis.
 We are tracking some of the stocks on the move on the back of earnings. Shares of Dell are surging to the tune of 38% while American Eagle and Gap are in the red right now. War on those moves in just a moment as well.
 Tracking treasuries on the back of a very busy day of econ data including the core and PCE data hitting a three-year high. That's the Fed's preferred inflation gauge.
 The benchmark 10-year note yield is higher and yield lower in price. We are now at 4.457% the two-year note yield 4.029% and the 30-year long bond actually seeing a yield drop slightly to 4.98%.
 Turning to the energy markets, keeping a close eye and watch on that apparent deal between the U.S. and Iran to end the war over there, oil prices right now are slightly lower.
 Half a percent at clients year for U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, currently at $88.48. The world benchmark gauge Brent Crude futures $93.35 off by a similar percentage amount.
 This morning, Centcom is denying that any U.S. aircraft were shot down over Iran. This despite claims made by Iranian state television that a plane had been destroyed.
 Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance says the U.S. and Iran are still negotiating over a couple of language points, his words, on a deal to end the war and reopen the straight-of-war moves with a focus on Iran's nuclear program.
 It's very clear that I think the Iranians, they want to deal and they want to open the straight-of-war moves. We want them to open the straight-of-war moves. There are a couple of issues on the nuclear stuff, the highly enriched stockpile and also the question and enrichment.
 So, you know, we're going back and forth with them. We do think they're negotiating at least so far in good faith that we're making some progress.
 Now, Vance is adding he feels, quote unquote, pretty good about getting a deal done in over the finish line.
 Now, let's see how Europe and Asia are closing out the month of May. Ben Bullos is in London where they look at European markets and Lisa Kim is tracking the action in Asia and Ben, we're going to start with you.
 Yes, good morning to you, Dominic, and positive sentiment to be found in European equity markets after a little bit of a course should start to the trading day.
 Investors are hoping for more details of a potential U.S. Iran deal to extend the ceasefire, but in the time being, this is what we've seen the standout performer at the moment of the regional benchmarks is Paris.
 That car are up just under 1% the others also in positive territory this after the pan-European index in the previous session gave up about half a percent into the red.
 So, that's the picture for European trading in the Friday session, but let's zoom out a little and take a look at the monthly picture.
 Europe's stock 600 is on pace for a 10th positive month in 11 in May, but European stocks have largely been playing catch up to the records we've seen on Wall Street this month.
 But that said, all of the European benchmarks looking to end May higher than where they started.
 At the moment, it's a bit of a tussle between the ZetroDax and Frankfurt and the Mib in Milan as to which one is going to close out the month with the biggest gains.
 We'll see how they perform in Friday.
 But to your point about, sell in May and go away, I don't think so.
 I think what we've seen is stay in May and perhaps by each day, but I'll leave that for you to decide, Dominic.
 All right. I like the rhyming there. Thank you very much.
 Poet and philosopher Ben Boulos. Thank you for that.
 Let's get to Asia now and the latest from our own Lisa Kim in Singapore.
 How did we close out the week over in Asian markets, Lisa?
 Happy Friday. Major stock indexes here in Asia finished the last trading day of the month on a strong note.
 Stocks in South Korea and Japan posted record closing highs and those in Taiwan a fresh, enter day high.
 South Korea's benchmark index jumped more than 3% today.
 And for the month that index has searched nearly 30.
 Samsung Electronics rose around 6% after the chipmaker said it's starting shipping samples of its new HBM chips to customers.
 Over in Taiwan, the benchmark index there is up nearly 15% this month.
 Then let's finish over in Japan.
 The bell weather indicated two to five in the broader topics index both hit record closing highs, bringing their monthly gains to roughly 10% and 5%.
 Respectively there Dominic.
 All right, Lisa Kim in Singapore with the latest action over in Asia.
 Thank you for that.
 Back to those stocks on the move this morning starting with shares of Dell.
 Surging after reporting its fastest pace of revenue growth for any period since its return to the public markets more than seven years ago.
 Soaring nearly 90% from a year ago period in the first quarter.
 Earnings also blowing past estimates.
 The company's raising its full year guidance.
 Now that's the reason why it's up 38%.
 A different story though for American Eagle shares which are sinking with earnings coming largely in line with expectations.
 Comparable store sales falling 2% compared to the roughly 3% that analysts 3% gains that analysts were expecting.
 Guidance for the current quarter was also viewed as disappointing so those shares are down roughly 11% pre-market.
 And gap shares are also in the red this morning.
 The retailer cutting its sales outlook for the full year.
 Meanwhile, first quarter revenue missing the street's estimates though earnings did top expectations the mixed report leading to a 15% decline for gap shares.
 Back to the broader markets with the S&P 500 NASDAQ and Russell 2000 all set to close out May at record high levels.
 The NASDAQ's leading the charge up 8% on that month-to-date basis.
 The S&P and Russell are both up nearly 5%.
 But if you zoom out year-to-date, the Russell is up over 18%. Nearly double that of the S&P 500 as the surge for small caps continues to gain momentum.
 For more on that story, let's bring in John Stolzos, the chief investment strategist over an Oppenheimer asset management and Francis Ganon, the Co-Chief Investment Officer at Royce Investment Partners,
 from that specializes in those small caps stocks.
 Gentlemen, thank you very much for being here this morning. I want to talk first of all, John, for you to lay out the entire kind of stage, if you will, how the scene has been set for these stocks.
 The markets at record highs may be not a surprise, although it's in the face of a war in Iran.
 What exactly is the primary reason in your mind? Why things are just collectively so good across the board despite all the risks out there?
 Well, I think it's a combination of several things. One is that the fundamentals remain remarkably good on a basis of resilience, not robust in nature.
 Well, perhaps the S&P 500 robust in the first quarter that we're seeing in this earnings season.
 But in terms of the economy, it's resilient, it's not pulling into a recession.
 We find monetary policy under Powell is handing off the role at the Fed with the Fed and good stead having brought down inflation significantly, even if the recent resurgence in oil bringing up inflation.
 Overall, we've got the consumer and business are really doing what they're supposed to be doing.
 The fundamentals are good. The situation in terms of Iran appears to be moving towards at least an extension of the talks.
 There's plenty of difficult matters that will leave likely geopolitical risk to remain for quite a while.
 But the market seems to be saying things have changed, and then the quality of the U.S. private investor is very serious these days.
 It's looking for diversification, move away from getting involved with over-concentration.
 So you're getting diversification across sectors, market capitalizations, and style, value versus growth, with value on a year-to-date basis, still had a growth, but growth most recently ahead of value.
 Speaking of that diversification and market cap levels, this is interesting because in the face of higher interest rates, the fundamentals still appear to be okay for small-cap companies who are more exposed towards those higher lending rates and higher costs of borrowing.
 But there are also reasons why maybe the fundamental story is picking up despite those headwinds for smaller capitalization companies.
 Can you take us through why small caps are doing so well?
 Yes, good morning. I think you have to realize it's not just a year-to-date story.
 The small cap story has been going on for the past year. In fact, small caps are up over 40-some odd percent compared to 25% for the S&P 500 over the past year.
 So this isn't new this year, and I think it's really been driven by what we're seeing from an earnings perspective.
 If you look back at the Russell 2000 and 23 and 24 and into most of 25, the earnings story was crippled. It was actually negative and turned positive at the end of 25 and is estimated to be this year ahead of large caps from an earnings perspective.
 And I think that's kind of been the linchpin. So John referenced an economy that's been resilient.
 You look at the earnings stories of a lot of these small cap companies, which are benefiting from kind of these broad stories that we're talking about, being a deregulation, being at the tax bill last year or now taxed act, I guess we should call it in terms of 100% depreciation on catbacks in research.
 Productivity, enhanced productivity from AI. And yes, the Fed is actually eased. We forget it's 175 basis points.
 And I think that's all part of this earning story that's actually supporting small caps.
 And typically when you see small caps outperform or start out perform like we have over the past year, it goes on for a decade.
 And so we think we're at the beginning of what could be a prolonged small cap cycle for what an asset class would I refer to as kind of the forgotten asset class for a long period of time.
 People are getting away as John alluded to this concentration idea to the broad overall market. I think that continues.
 All right, Francis, because you are the small cap stock picker. Let's talk a little bit about what stocks you actually do like within small caps. What parts of the market are important to you?
 Well, I think in small caps, you know, as a firm, we are overweight and industrials, which is a bit of a catch all within the small cap space.
 But also technology and even in certain parts of the central space. And that doesn't mean just banks. It's also reinsurance companies, insurance companies and capital market businesses.
 And you can find that. And you know, lots of different. I think people are focusing a lot on what's, you know, AI and what benefits from AI. And there's a lot of different ways to play that.
 So several ideas that I'd highlight for you would be Quaker Houghton, which is an industrial chemical company, you know, two, almost $3 billion market cap company.
 It's one that we think will continue to do quite well. There's a MedTech company and a vest, which we think is another wonderful small business spun out of the eSob.
 Several years ago under the coal fax name and is rebranded itself. So we think that's a really interesting way to play small caps today as well as interpar found, which is a asset light.
 Parfume, perfume manufacturer for some of the big names out there, which is a great way to play the luxury space without taking on the ownership of the lot of luxury companies.
 All right, John, quick word. Last word to you here. What's your favorite part of the market right now?
 Favorite part of the market remains a basket of indexes, which would be infom attack, communication services, financials, industrials, and most certainly consumer discretionary, which has been hated for so long.
 Looks like it's beginning to catch a bit again.
 All right, economically sensitive companies out there. Thank you both for joining us on Stoltfist and also Francis Ganon. Have a nice weekend for you both.
 We got a lot more to come here morning call, including a dramatic scene in Florida as the latest rocket test by Jeff Bezos's blue origin literally ends in flames.
 Plus one of Silicon Valley's biggest names reportedly in the sites of the Justice Department, former Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Cantor joins us coming up.
 And then later on a biotech in the spotlight as a major conference kicks off in that healthcare industry.
 We're talking to one top analyst on the stocks. He says it should be on investors radars. We got a very busy hour still ahead.
 Morning call returns after this commercial break.
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 All right from that live shot of our nation's capital to a developing story the top federal prosecutor in Chicago is denying his office has opened an investigation into E. Jean Carroll.
 Reports say the DOJ is looking into whether the advice columnist permitted perjury regarding the funding of one of our lawsuits against President Trump that accused him of sexual assault 30 years ago.
 She won a pair of civil lawsuits but several media outlets have now reported the actual focus of the investigation is on the nonprofit backed by LinkedIn co-founder Reed Hoffman that helped pay some of Carroll's legal costs and examining potential charges of money laundering.
 Conspiracy and obstruction Hoffman is a major democratic party donor and an outspoken critic of President Trump.
 CNBC has reached out to Hoffman who has not yet commented.
 So joining me now on the CNBC newsline is Jonathan Cantor former assistant U.S. Attorney General in the anti-trust division under President Biden is also a CNBC contributor.
 Jonathan thank you so much for joining us this morning I wonder if you could take us through first of all the claims here how how voracious is this if it were to happen.
 This claim of possible money laundering you know perjury and everything else is it substantiated and is there precedent in the past for going after someone like E. Jean Carroll for these particular issues.
 Yeah so good morning. So let's start with the basics here first of all outside litigation funding is a common and lawful the most notable example was Peter Keel supporting whole Cogins lawsuit against Gokker but advocacy groups public interest organizations litigation funders across the political spectrum and you know regardless of ideology fund litigation all the time.
 So that in itself is not problematic. Second this issue was raised during the E. Jean Carroll litigation and not only raised at the district court but it was raised at the appellate court and in both instances the court found her explanation plausible that she wasn't trying to conceal or lie but that she simply forgot about the litigation funding because there's a small percentage of the financing and then later corrected the record.
 I mean I myself make mistakes and I've corrected them in the past as well so maybe that's nothing new and I can empathize with that. I wonder in this new kind of age and new paradigm in legality here in the U.S.
 The president himself and others that are close to him have called some of these types of issues law fair right that's the term that we've used a lot more these days.
 How much of this could be considered law fair on both sides going back and forth against each other.
 Yeah we are living in the law fair era. I think that is the reality of today's world. The investigations feel whether they are separate question but they feel retaliatory and they also feel like they're designed both in terms of the investigation into Carroll if there is one but also to the public interest group that Hoffman funds.
 It feels like it's designed really in anticipation of the election to set a shot across the bow which is if you start funding things that are against our administration or against our campaign or negative to us we're going to retaliate and that just raises the cost of playing in the political game.
 Jonathan to this kind of maybe final point here is it then okay if Reid Hoffman goes after President Trump and conversely if President Trump then goes after Reid Hoffman.
 Well I think as a society we should not like any of this right now certainly litigation funding and financing is fine.
 So as a mechanism that is something that occurs normally and in courts have said it is perfectly appropriate so that itself is not the problem.
 What is the problem though is when I was at the Department of Justice we had an awesome responsibility in my division you have to bring cases without fear of favor.
 And you know concerns about malicious prosecution and abusing power are very serious in our society and the rule of law depends on people with the public trust using that power responsibly.
 And so there is a heightened level of obligation and responsibility and frankly public duty when you're in those public positions especially when you have the ability to take away somebody's liberty rights by bringing a criminal investigation or prosecution.
 All right Jonathan Cantor former U.S. Assistant Attorney General thank you very much have a nice weekend sir we appreciate it.
 Thanks. Be well.
 All right straight ahead on the show anthropic is taking the lead against rival open AI when it comes to a key metric but first check out the run that Apple stock's been on.
 Shares have been up for nine straight weeks closing at a record high in yesterday's session pushing the company's market cap to roughly 4.6 trillion dollars.
 The stock is up roughly 25% over that period going back to mid March it's gained 16% in just the past month alone. Apple is at a comeback story that morning calls back after this.
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 Welcome back to morning call checking some of this morning's latest headlines a fiery finish to latest rocket tests for Jeff Bezos's blue origin with the new Glenn rocket exploding yesterday on the launch pad at Cape in Avril in Florida.
 Bezos said in a post on X that all personnel were safe following the explosion and it's unclear what actually caused it.
 NASA said it would assess the potential impacts of a plan to return American astronauts to the moon through the year by the year 2028.
 Blue Origin rival SpaceX is reportedly eyeing a valuation of at least $1.8 trillion and it's upcoming IPO that's according to a report from Bloomberg which previously reported a target of $2 trillion.
 The report says the lowered target comes after consultations with advisors and investors but did add SpaceX could still decide to increase that target valuation.
 Anthropic is now the most valuable AI company out there after announcing a $65 billion financing round giving it a total valuation of $965 billion nearly triplets previous valuation held back in February.
 This puts it ahead of rival open AI valued at roughly $852 billion as of late March.
 Sticking with the Anthropic story Bloomberg is reporting that Apollo global management and Blackstone are working to bring additional investors into a roughly $36 billion debt financing deal to help build the AI startup build out its infrastructure.
 And that report adds the debt will be used by Google's custom chips which Anthropic will then lease and that Broadcom which helps Google develop those chips is back stopping payments on the largest portions of that transaction.
 So a lot of complexity there.
 Now as we head out to break a check on auto desk shares falling on the back of earnings ex subscription revenue for the maker of design and engineering software came in below Wall Street estimates.
 It did though beat on the top and bottom line for its most recent quarter and says it sees results for the current quarter topping estimates as well nonetheless on balance auto desk shares down 6% pre-market warning call comes back after this.
 I'm Dominic Chiuin from Oregon bread and welcome back to morning call US equity futures right now we're catching a slight bid with the S&P 500 NASDAQ sitting at fresh record highs.
 And again the Dow's implied higher by roughly 130 points the S&P up by about 14 and the tech heavier NASDAQ 100 up by about 60.
 It's not just the S&P and NASDAQ though the Russell 2000 small cap index is also sitting at a fresh record high and it's up about 18% just on a year to date basis.
 For the week though the Russell's leading the gains up over 2% right now the NASDAQ in a close second as we close out trading for the month of May it's the NASDAQ those as leading the gains overall up about 8% for the month tracking treasuries on the back of a busy day of econ data including inflation data in the PCE hitting a 3 year high right now rates are moving lower catching a bid for bond prices the 10 year no yield 4.45% the 2 year no yield 4.0 2%
 and the 30 year long bond 4.98%. We're watching oil prices as we monitor the latest developments around a potential U.S. Iran peace extension and right now you can see the prices are down 2% for benchmark West Texas intermediate $87 and 16 cents world benchmark ice Brent crude futures $92 and 18 cents down between 1.5 to 2%.
 Checking on global markets a mostly positive finish in Asia with the NK and Cosby leading gains up to 1.5 and 3.5% respectively checking on the European trade as well you can see there the FTSE 100 up about a quarter of 1% but the CAC in France up a full percent there.
 Now a check on some of your big earnings movers shares of net app are jumping as fourth quarter earnings and revenue beat estimates on continued strong demand for AI data storage.
 Net app also expects sales to come in ahead of Wall Street expectations for both this quarter and for the full year those shares are up a whopping 16% premarket.
 Shares of Sentinel 1 are tumbling the cybersecurity company reporting a narrower first quarter net loss and adjusted earnings beat forecasts but revenue came up just shy of annual assessments and guidance for this quarter is also below expectations on balance those shares are down 20%.
 Shares of Octa are rising as first quarter results top forecast and the identity software maker raised its guidance for the full year revenue growth was driven by strength in Octa's core business with new products accounting for a third of bookings that's leading to a 8% advance in those shares.
 I think just broadly we're seeing broad strength across the entire product portfolio identity infrastructure identity security workforce identity customer identity.
 I think customer it is a volatile time they're dealing with a lot of technology news and PR announcements and hype and AI and on and on and they're turning to trusted vendors.
 All right from Octa to Chicago it's going to be the epicenter of one of the world's most important events for medical research over the next several days.
 The American Society of clinical oncology or ASCO as it's more commonly known is holding its annual conference from today through Tuesday more than 40,000 cancer researchers doctors patient advocates and industry professionals will be presenting and discussing results of groundbreaking clinical trials and new cancer treatments.
 One of those folks is Greg Savanovich the senior biofarma and biotech analyst at Mizzouho securities who's heading to ASCO later on today and Greg you delayed a flight to ASCO to come and join us this morning so thank you very much for that.
 All right so let's talk a little bit about ASCO is a major event in this industry and especially for people who cover it like you.
 Many companies present a few key notes will be highly attended.
 What exactly is going to be the key for you to watch at this year's conference?
 Yeah well thanks for having me there's so much going on at this year's ASCO it's always an exciting conference to go to it's one of the highlights of our year in biotech.
 There are several presentations that I think most investors in biotech will be watching very closely.
 There are the plenary sessions that take place on Sunday and in particular there are two presentations that I think a lot of biotech
 and patient care actually should be paying attention to which is a presentation for revolution medicines.
 They have a drug called Daroxon Rassib which is a Rass inhibitor.
 They've got some outstanding data in a second line pancreatic cancer setting.
 And then following that there's a presentation from Summit Therapeutics they have a bi-specific VEGF PD1 program which is being viewed as a potential competitor Merc's KTruda
 and remember KTruda last year sold about 32 billion in sales.
 And it's become kind of like a I don't want to say catch all it's not the right term for it but it's become almost like a universal medicine to treat various forms of cancer right now.
 So RevMed and Summit two key ones to watch.
 This conference also ends up leading to kind of maybe some volatile stock moves for the companies that are involved.
 So how exactly should investors react or not react to what's coming out of ASCO and what exactly is going to be the key for you in terms of stock movements post-ASCO?
 Yeah well we've seen some stocks move already going into ASCO some of the abstracts came out a few weeks ago and with that said we've seen some stocks move as much as 30-40% in both directions.
 So I think the key here is we'll actually see the data and the presentations.
 A lot of the stock moves initially have been just on abstracts and those are just descriptions of what the data will be but we'll actually see and hear the data.
 So I think what's important for people looking at biotech names and stocks in particular are to actually hear what is said and looking not only at the efficacy details but also the safety tolerability details.
 And the unique thing about being at a conference like ASCO is we get to talk to doctors and get their reaction to what they're seeing.
 For better or worse investors and traders who traffic in biopharma biotech tend to view many of these smaller medium sized companies as binary type result companies.
 Either your drug goes and works or it doesn't and you kind of have to go back to the drawing board.
 Within your coverage universe you cover a lot of these types of companies do.
 In the world of oncology cancer so outside of GLP1 straight on.
 What companies stand out to you as the ones that you favor the most in that kind of paradigm or construct?
 Yeah so in particular we have three companies that we're watching closely at ASCO, companies that we cover at Mizzouho.
 One is a company called Corbus Pharmaceuticals.
 They have a very interesting Nectin IV antibody drug conjugate which has had very intriguing data in head and neck cancer.
 And what they showed in their abstract is that you can actually get a 43% response rate in patients where current standard of care is typically in the teens percent range.
 So more than doubling what you typically see with standard of care that's one of those companies.
 Another company is called Immuneering and Immuneering is a company that has a very novel MEC inhibitor which has got really tantalizing data in first line pancreatic cancer.
 We're seeing a median overall survival of about 17 months and again that is more than double some forms of standard care chemotherapies.
 And the last company I'll mention is called Amatics.
 And Amatics is a company that's working on a target called Prame.
 Prame is really interesting. It's expressed in over 50 cancers.
 I think right now most people think it works only in melanoma but at ASCO we'll see potential signs that it works beyond melanoma and what's really interesting about Amatics is they've got multiple modalities.
 So they've got a cell therapy based approach and they also have a bi-specific antibody approach.
 GLP1's get a lot of the attention for good reason. It's translated into billions of dollars but clinical oncology obviously very important for a lot of folks out there.
 Greg Sabanovic, thank you very much and safe travels to Chicago for ASCO.
 Thank you Dominic.
 Coming up on the show a lot more to come here including digging into Cole's comeback.
 We're going to talk to the CEO of Rammacle Resources on what he's seeing when it comes to demand as more countries turn to that power source as the Iran war drags on.
 A beneficiary of the war. Morning call is back after this.
 Welcome back to morning call to watch the price of oil following the latest developments around that apparent deal between the US and Iran to end the war there or at least extend the cease fire.
 Re-open the straight of war Moose as well. Speaking yesterday Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant saying oil prices could face further drops if a deal is finalized.
 We've already seen oil prices come down substantially. We are pumping more oil than we've ever seen before.
 And as I said these are short-term challenges that we will get over and I think will move forward.
 Well, one thing that's happened is elevated oil and gas prices have proven to be a boon
 for coal, with a growing number of countries turning back to the power source to meet their
 energy needs in the absence of the oil and gas.
 Spot coal prices at Australia's Newcastle port, a key supplier to Asia, are up over 10%
 since the war started, briefly topping $140 metric tonne back in mid-March, that's the
 highest level since late 2024, though far below the $440 reached in the wake of Russia's
 invasion of Ukraine back in 2022.
 For more on that story, let's bring in Randall Atkins, the founder, chairman, and CEO of
 Ramico Resources, it's fascinating to me right now that we can have this conversation
 around Iran, oil, natural gas, and everything else.
 And no one has really talked about the coal aspect of this, just how much has it been
 important for you and your business in terms of coal, these are the what's happening
 in Iran right now.
 Well, we are essentially a dual platform company.
 We have coal, we have metallurgy coal, which is used for steel, and then we have critical
 minerals, which is rare earths, which is, frankly, what we call the new oil.
 And so the war in Iran has really focused the world on the criticality of energy of critical
 minerals, and coal is at the nexus of that.
 The coal prices that you see right now, treasurer secretary Bessent just mentioned oil and
 gas prices falling if we could get a deal done.
 How much are you banking on the current price construct for coal, and how much does that
 plane to your future versus the critical minerals business that you guys have, and how
 does that rebalance over time if this war gets resolved anytime soon?
 Well, the interesting thing is our business in Met coal is really not dictated by the energy
 flows as much, because thermal coal of course is used for power, Met coal is used for steel.
 That's impacted more by China.
 But the interesting thing is the intersection with critical minerals.
 As I said, critical minerals are the new oil, and that is an aspect that, frankly, is under
 appreciated at least with respect to our company, because we've doing some very exciting
 things in that space, which I think are going to become apparent over the next few months
 as we begin to roll out some more information.
 There is no doubt that that critical minerals story is going to be that next frontier when
 it comes to establishing all of the base foundational elements that we need for powering
 the AI boom, for that next generation of technology.
 How much does it take a company like yours to pivot more and allocate resources away
 from say a coal into those critical minerals?
 And by the way, how many projects do you have to want to get going before you start to
 see a real impact in that kind of rebalancing of your portfolio?
 Well, we've already started to rebalance.
 We raised about almost a billion dollars of capital since last summer, frankly dedicated
 to what we want to achieve in the critical mineral space, but also to basically double the
 size of our coal operations.
 So we're in growth mode on two fronts.
 We're going to have different prospects than the other coal trades that are relatively
 modest, multiple, critical minerals traded are very high, multiple.
 So I think as we move forward, as I said, we're a dual platform company, but I think we
 will begin to reorganize ourselves to have separate emphasis on the different business
 lines.
 Ramiko's coal exposure is domestically focused.
 It's very much about a US story here, about getting it out of the ground and whatnot.
 The critical mineral story is also a US story, but it's been a China story in many other
 parts of the world.
 What exactly does the US have to do to become more competitive on that front?
 Not just for your company, but others to make sure that the US and other countries, X
 China and Asia, have access to those types of products without having to access China
 for them as a possible supply chain choke point.
 Well, interestingly, we export two-thirds of our business right now.
 Two-thirds of our coal goes to foreign markets.
 And candidly, when we're actually up and producing critical minerals, I honestly expect
 that we'll ship a good deal of our products overseas as well.
 I was recently in Japan, and that is where the legacy critical mineral businesses are.
 Such things as magnets, semiconductors, electronics.
 They have a much more mature business in a lot of those areas than we do over here,
 which we're trying to reassure and establish, frankly as quickly as we can.
 Now one final question, the production of this, the mining of it, is your company more
 focused on the domestic US and North American markets for the mining extraction of it before
 you export it, or is it going to be a more global story in your mind for companies like yours?
 I think for our company, at least it will be a domestic story.
 We obviously have metallurgy coal in the Appalachian region, and we have a very unique mine
 in Wyoming, which has got both thermal coal as well as critical minerals, which we discovered
 that were commingled in essence with coal.
 All right.
 Randall, I can see you over.
 Ramico, thank you so much.
 Please come back and see us again soon.
 Absolutely.
 Have a nice weekend, sir.
 Thank you.
 All right.
 Straight ahead on the show.
 The morning call crew is assembling, teeing up the trading day ahead, and whether the
 markets record run will roll into the summer, we'll be right back after this.
 Welcome back, time now for your call sheet, where we look at the topics driving the trading
 day ahead.
 The crew members we have today, Peter Bookfar, of 1.bfg wealth partners, Gina Sanchez,
 of Chantico Global, both, by the way, or CMBC contributors, and Shauna Smith of Global
 XETFs.
 Thank you all for being here, so crew has been assembled.
 Topic number one, markets at record highs, Shauna, I'm going to start with you on this
 one here.
 This move has been staggering for a lot of people, especially since the March lows
 during the war.
 Is it justified?
 I think it is justified.
 I think when you take a look at some of the biggest factors that are driving this year,
 obviously, first and foremost, it's a stronger fundamental picture.
 When you take a look at corporate earnings growth, what we are seeing there, take a look
 at the fact that the economy is hanging in.
 It is slowing, but still, though, it looks solid, so that's enough to eat this path of
 least resistance to the upside.
 I think the question going forward is what that volatility is going to look like when
 you take a look at the geopolitical uncertainty, what that introduces from an inflationary perspective.
 That could be enough to add in some of that risk factor from here on out.
 Gina, we understand the macro story, and you can't fight the tape right now, really.
 The momentum has been there, but you have always been one that we've turned to for some
 of the kind of subtler points early tea leaves for why you might want to be cautious.
 So are you seeing some of those now?
 Yeah, so obviously the core PC number sort of underscores this dynamic is happening, but
 one of the places we're looking at is we're watching Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 filings
 right now.
 Chapter 11 obviously leading Chapter 7 filings, and we're starting to see those take up.
 And that, to us, has yet to really translate into financial stress, but it's going to make
 its way eventually, and certainly yields are not representing that, and the equity market
 certainly is turning a blind eye to that, but that is a canary in the coal mine that we
 have to watch.
 It doesn't necessarily mean that we have to follow up a cliff, but at the very least we're
 going to see some softening.
 All right, so do you see those same things, Peter?
 Are there signs in the markets right now that are telling you maybe there's caution
 or should we just say full steam ahead?
 Tom, this is all about the AI tech trade.
 This is all about the data center build out.
 That's what's driving pretty much everything.
 And as long as that continues, then the markets will be okay because they're dominated
 by these names.
 Economic growth is dominated by this build out.
 I mean, we saw the revision to QNGDP yesterday to 1.6%, 150 basis points was related
 to data center investments.
 Dell told us this is robust.
 We know it's robust for how much longer it will be robust, well, to determine the fate
 of the economy and the stock market and the back half of the year.
 It's a nice segue into our second topic, which is the volatility that we've seen in
 many of these tech stocks because of that AI build out or the exposure that some companies
 are perceived to have or not have to it.
 We've seen the upside and the downside.
 Gene, I'm going to start with you on this one.
 Has it been surprising?
 And what has been driving a lot of this tech volatility?
 I mean, we're showing these stocks up, Dell's up 30 plus percent right now in trading
 today.
 Yeah, so I think the AI story started with that tech build out story and the data center
 story is clearly a big component and we expected that.
 What has shifted is now the actual focus in the AI space is going from model building
 which requires all these data centers to inferencing, which requires a lot of memory.
 And so suddenly we've seen DRAM prices just skyrocketing and that's really the play
 right now and the question around the dependence on the semiconductors, the chips directly
 and what it means and sort of the need for cooling and all of the power draw that comes
 with these data centers.
 And I think that's big, a big theme right now that's also going to drive investment.
 Shawna, how much is the volatility, both upside and downside, been driven by things like
 thematic investing in ETFs because people can do that now more readily, options trading,
 things like that.
 What exactly is that part of the story vis-a-vis this volatility?
 I think there's been driving some of the dynamics.
 Certainly there has been increased interest continues to be said to interest, thankfully
 in thematic investing.
 And I think when you take a look at some of these bull cases that have been laid out from
 about so many of these companies, specifically even within just the AI trade here over the
 last several weeks, really points to that strong growth that we are expecting to see here
 for at least of quarters and years to come.
 I think the question going forward is who exactly the winners and losers are going to
 be.
 We started to see the shake out over the past couple of earnings seasons.
 We certainly have seen in this round when it comes to some of the software stocks.
 The negativity maybe have gotten to a bit too stretched here on some of these names that
 we've seen rebound.
 But I think it's also important to take a step back and put it in perspective.
 Snowflakes since the start of the year, it's only up nine, ten percent.
 So yes, we're seeing this parabolic move to the upside, but overall a lot of that has
 just been regaining some of the losses that we saw with the massive sell-off earlier
 this year.
 All right.
 So let's put all of these moves in the context of a macro story as well.
 Peter, I'm going to turn for you for this one here.
 The inflation data that we got yesterday, it's high, but it was kind of expected.
 This is the first time we're really seeing the flow-throughs from the Iran War, just
 how much will inflation and the eco-data be a part of that story for the markets going
 forward?
 Well, the rise in energy prices, along with other commodity prices, it's going to take
 a quarter or two for it to fully flow through.
 I mean, when a company is selling a product today, that cost of goods sold was probably
 sourced before the war.
 And once those inventories get run down and the inventories get refilled with the reprised
 products, that's when you're going to see the real flow-throughs.
 So the core number, I expect to continue to increase over the next couple of months.
 Now, of course, if the war ends today, well, prices and other commodity prices receive
 back down again, then we can take a breather here.
 But at least for now, expect further increases in inflation, which creates a situation where
 central bankers are more spectators, rather than activists, in having to deal with it.
 All right.
 Thanks very much.
 Peter Bookfar, Shana Smith, Gina Sanchez at Chantico, we appreciate it and have a great
 weekend.
 Thanks for being here with us right now.
 Check on futures right now before we toss it over to Squawk Box.
 Right now, we are seeing some gains, thousands applied by 120 points, yes, and be up by 13.
 Keep it right here.
 Squawk Box starts right now, have a great weekend.