OpenAI Releases Latest GPT Model, Bloom Energy Overpromising? 7/9/26

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 Oil Studies, Stock Rebound.
 I'm Morgan Brennan, this is your morning call.
 Good Thursday morning.
 Let's get a check on US Stock Futures after the Dow's worst day since early June.
 It was a mixed picture for the markets yesterday.
 The Dow and S&P finishing lower, Nasdaq fractionally higher,
 everything though, basically ending, closing at session highs.
 As you can see right there on your screen,
 now we're poised for a rebound here for all the major averages.
 S&P poised to open up 10 points, Dow 84.
 Nasdaq is the out performer this morning.
 Poised to open up about 200 points here.
 Keep in mind we're also on pace for losses for everything,
 but the Nasdaq so far for the week as well.
 Let's get a check on Treasury's too as we've seen yields move higher this week amid
 those escalating tensions in the Middle East.
 And you could see that's largely the case across the curve right now.
 US 10-year Treasury yielding 4.57 percent.
 That's been a pretty hefty move here in the last 24 hours.
 The US 2-year Treasury, though, taking a little bit of a breather this morning,
 yielding 4.19 percent.
 Jobless claims, existing home sales, that is what's on tap today.
 And if we check on the Dollar Index as well in the midst of all of this,
 keep in mind hedge funds have been pretty bullish on the dollar in the past week or so here.
 And you could see the dollars basically flat right now,
 trading around 197 the Dollar Index.
 And let's get a check on Energy 2 after oil's best day in more than a month,
 yesterday, taking a little bit of a breather here,
 WTI down about half a percent trading around 73 dollars a barrel.
 Keep in mind that is elevated from where we started.
 The week Brent, a similar story down about half a percent this morning,
 trading around 77 dollars 50 cents a barrel,
 are above gasoline, flat to the upside, and that gas slightly lower.
 Let's get to our top story.
 The US launching new air strikes against Iran earlier today,
 after President Trump said recent attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz signaled
 to the end of the ceasefire agreement.
 The US Central Command saying last night that it hit some 90 targets across Iran
 intended to quote further degrade Tehran's ability to threaten free passage
 through the strait.
 Iranian state media reporting explosions in ports such as Bandar Abbas and cities,
 as well, home to Iran's nuclear power complex.
 Iran responding by targeting US military sites in Bahrain.
 That's home to the headquarters of the US Navy's fifth fleet,
 as well as Kuwait and Qatar.
 There's no word yet of damage from those attacks.
 But global market reaction now.
 Karen Cho has the Europe trade from London and Lisa Kim with the action,
 the Asia action in Singapore.
 Karen, let's start with you.
 Morgan, good morning.
 We are seeing green across the boards in early European trade
 with regional bosses looking to rebound after posting their worst day since March on Wednesday.
 Now, one market we're following in particular is Bains Ibex.
 It is recovering from those heavy losses yesterday.
 When the US President Donald Trump said he wanted to cut off all trade with Madrid,
 speaking to reporters on the way back from Ankara,
 the President appeared to change his tune slightly, saying Spain had been,
 quote, very generous at the NATO summit.
 But if you're looking at what's moving on these European boards,
 it really is basic resources.
 It's also technology.
 Some of those big diversifiers that were firmly in focus a couple of sessions earlier,
 now on the back foot and investors just going back to that narrow trading range around technology.
 Meantime, some corporate news we're also following very closely today.
 AstraZeneca shares are under heavy selling pressure this morning.
 After its nerve disease drug failed to meet a main goal of reducing recurring heart problems
 of this in a trial and cardiovascular deaths,
 the drug was found not to provide any statistically significant benefit.
 So the stock, as you can see, down more than 80%.
 But also consequences stayed side.
 We're tracking shares of IONUS.
 It is a partner in the trial.
 Those shares are done heavily in pre-market ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street.
 Morgan, back to you.
 It's in big moves there, Karen Cho.
 Thank you.
 Let's get to the overnight action in Asia and our Lisa Kim for more.
 Lisa.
 Hey Morgan, it was a mixed trading session here in Asia after swinging between gains and losses.
 South Chris Benchmark index cost be eaked out a small gain.
 The index is in bear market territory, having lost around 20% from its record high last month.
 Although that gauge is still up around 70% this year.
 SK Heinex rose 5%.
 The company's US listing is reportedly more than 7 times over subscribed
 as it looks to start trading on the NASDAQ tomorrow.
 In neighboring Japan, the Nikkei 225 ended a 3-day losing streak thanks to AI plays.
 Memory chip maker and the most valuable Japanese company, Kioxia, searched 8%.
 Let's take a look at Japanese government bonds, renewed hostilities in the Middle East,
 aggravated inflation concerns, and a time when investors were already worried about
 Japanese government's massive spending plans.
 The yield on the Benchmark 10-year JGB hit a fresh 30-year high.
 Mark, good.
 All right, Lisa Kim, thank you.
 And of course you get SK Heinex pricing here in the US after the bell tonight.
 So we'll be watching that one.
 The markets appear to be taking today's Iran action in stride joining me now.
 It's Tom Lee, co-founder and head of Research at Fund Stride.
 He's also a CMBC contributor doing double duty for us today.
 And Tony Bankrow, support folio manager at Cabelli,
 which runs who runs the firm's aerospace and defense ETF.
 And is also a former fighter pilot in the US Marines.
 We've got to mention that.
 It's great to have you both here.
 Tony, I'm going to kick this conversation off with you.
 You're sitting here on set with me.
 I know you're very focused on aerospace and events.
 We're going to get to that.
 But in general, when you see an escalation in geopolitical tensions
 as somebody who is a former Marine,
 flew F-18s in combat.
 I mean, what do investors need to know and understand about conflict
 like this, tensions like this?
 Yeah, I mean, this is a hot area.
 I mean, they're launching missiles as kinetic.
 And you're, you know, just, for example, on travel.
 You saw Ayada just put out their numbers last month for June.
 And travel in the Middle East is down.
 You know, I mean, globally is still up.
 But I think this is probably going to, unfortunately, continue.
 And I don't know the end game resolution.
 But if we're lobbing missiles at each other,
 it's going to make things difficult.
 Obviously, oil prices are going to be a factor as well.
 You know, going forward for the, probably for the foreseeable future.
 Okay.
 Tom, want to get your thoughts on this.
 Especially since yesterday we saw a knee jerk on winding
 of the peace trade.
 But today, maybe some stability here.
 Well, good morning.
 Yeah, I think investors are naturally going to be unsettled
 because the US is having, is it having a conflict with an enemy
 that, of course, is trying to engulf more nations
 and is threatening other countries.
 But we also know that during that period in February through April,
 while the war was escalating in markets were tumbling,
 it ultimately proved to be a good buying opportunity for stocks.
 And I think, you know, for me, maybe that would be the bigger
 message for viewers that you may not really want the US to be at war
 and it may actually make you very nervous about what you hold.
 But it proved to be a time when actually the US economy actually
 not only did well, war was probably somewhat good for the economy
 and ultimately created a V-shape bounce.
 Yeah, I mean, it's such a good point, Tony, especially when you look at the,
 I mean, you even see it in the macroeconomic data.
 It's not just AI infrastructure build out that is
 booing the US economy right now.
 It's huge amounts of defense spending that's making its way out
 into this reindustrialization push right now too.
 And yet, the defense contractor stocks, at least the so-called legacy primes,
 they're all lower.
 The stocks are lower since the start of the war.
 It's counterintuitive, and I think it's the peak defense trade.
 And people are saying, hey, midterms are coming up.
 There's going to be, you know, there's going to be,
 if the house is split and there's not a majority,
 it's going to be difficult to get defense spending passed.
 But the reality is, is defense spending in general is bipartisan.
 There will be some bringsmanship either way, no matter what likely.
 But all things being equal, you know, we're still well below historic defense spending
 on a GDP basis, on a federal budget basis.
 And I don't think, I don't think Europe is thinking,
 we're going to speak defense.
 I don't think ally countries in Asia think there's peak defense.
 I don't think the Middle East thinks there's peak defense.
 So I think the reality is, is probably not the case.
 Yeah, I mean, the other news that came out of the NATO summit yesterday,
 also very significant here, Tony, was that the US is giving Ukraine the green light
 to manufacture patriots.
 And also it would seem the president of the United States is okaying, you know,
 the strikes in Russia as well as Ukraine seems to be winning the war here.
 What does that mean in terms of the international picture for companies like RTX,
 like Lockheed Martin, and also some of the newer players have made a lot of drone companies
 of public, even just in the last couple months.
 Right, it's regards to the patriot.
 You know, there's been a precedent before we allow Japan to produce patriot missile
 and we allow other countries to produce other weapon systems that we have.
 It's a complex weapon system, supply chain is huge.
 It's going to take time for Ukraine where to start building these today.
 It's just going to take a material amount of time to, you know, get all the suppliers together.
 You know, you can't 3D print your way out of mass production.
 There's so many components in the radar secret heads.
 And then you need all the support system for all the host radars
 and all the other components that go into the communication of the system.
 So it's going to take time and it's going to benefit, it will benefit the suppliers.
 I mean, you know, Raytheon makes a lot of the parts obviously for their own missiles.
 So does Lockheed, and Europe is likely going to pay, you know, essentially going to give a loan to Ukraine
 to pay for these weapon systems.
 Yeah, we talk about memory shortages within tech,
 but it's something else that also affects systems like patriot as well.
 Which Tom brings me back to what we have seen within,
 we talk about rotation in the market more broadly, and certainly that's happening.
 I do want to get your thoughts on small caps, for example, which are about performed.
 And you were so early to that call.
 But even just the rotation we're seeing under the hood in tech,
 are there buying opportunities here?
 I do.
 You know, in general, I'm still bullish on tech broadly and on small caps.
 But as you're pointing out in tech, there's been a pretty sizable rotation
 or actually maybe a breakdown in memory and semis.
 I think the momentum index in general.
 You know, we published note yesterday just highlighting that the momentum index,
 which is an ETF, fell 8% over five days.
 And that that's only happened five times in the last three years.
 But each of those was actually the bottom of that selloff.
 So I do think that the, we're probably in the later stages of this online for memory and semis.
 And of course, the structural bulk case to own these is actually intact.
 So, you know, it's a buying opportunity.
 Okay, Russell 2000.
 Your thoughts on the small caps right now?
 Tom?
 Yeah.
 Oh, yeah.
 If you're asking me, yeah, I'm bullish on small caps.
 You know, it, to us, it's a multi-year move.
 But we've been highlighting for some times that we're coming off of almost 12 years of small cap underperformance.
 And their multiples have re-rated.
 And now we're an environment we're ensuring improved earnings growth.
 A potential dovish fed later, maybe in 2027, an M&A or all sort of tail once for small caps.
 All right, Tony Bancroft.
 Our thanks to you, Tom Lee.
 We're going to see you a little bit later this hour.
 Again, as I mentioned, you're doing double duty.
 You're going to join us for the morning call.
 Curious to looking forward to that.
 Thank you.
 We got a lot more to come here.
 I'm warning call, including the race of AI dominance.
 The two firms releasing their latest and greatest today.
 What it means for the sector, what it means for that.
 Turbulent tech trade.
 What it means for you, the user.
 Plus, breaking news in Maine as Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner suspends his campaign.
 We're prediction markets.
 See that race going now.
 And later, President Trump seeking a rare appeal from the Supreme Court over birthright citizenship.
 You have a very busy hour to bring you a morning call return.
 Which are America's top states for business?
 Get all the data and complete state-by-state analysis.
 See how your state measures up.
 America's top states for business.
 See the full list now at topstates.cnbc.com.
 The race for AI dominance, heating up today.
 Get two of the sector's biggest players releasing their latest offerings.
 Elon Musk's SpaceX AI launching the latest version of its GROC model.
 It's first released and SpaceX went public and bought the AI coding startup
 or officially announced that it would do so with cursor.
 SpaceX AI, I don't have to say it's three times fast.
 Claims the new GROC outperforms some open AI and anthropic models on speed, price, and performance,
 but not their latest and largest models.
 Speaking of open AI, it's releasing its latest version of its GPT model.
 It's coming roughly two weeks after the company said it limited the rollout at the request of the US government.
 But according to reports, the Trump administration insists the power to release new AI models
 rests entirely with the companies.
 So for more on the state of all things, AI.
 Let's bring in Jack Hittery, CEO of Sandbox AQ, which recently announced a new agreement with Alphabet
 to bring its models to Google Cloud Marketplace.
 Jack, it's great to have you on the show.
 We got a lot to talk about here today, but let's start with some of these models,
 the release of some of these models, and then let's get into Sandbox specifically.
 Sure, it's very exciting.
 The LLAMs continue to outdo each other in terms of conversational AI models,
 the gaining new features, the gaining more human conversational thought patterns,
 more reasoning, which is important if you want to do high-impact work.
 So the LLAMs really are seeing great productivity there,
 but complimentary to that Morgan, as you mentioned, are the LQMs, large quantitative models.
 So LLMs are fantastic.
 For the digital world, you want to produce a document, an image, a video.
 That's your choice there.
 Get the LLMs to use that to make that happen.
 But if you want to make something in the real world,
 if you want to make a new drug for cancer, for Alzheimer's,
 if you want to make a new material for batteries, as you know,
 we just won the award.
 Very proud to say we won the award from the CHIPS program with the Department of Commerce,
 $500 million award, for our LQMs, our quantitative models that can produce
 novel battery chemistries that do not depend on foreign sources of raw input,
 new magnets, new catalysts that will help stand up our semiconductor industry
 here in the United States without foreign dependency.
 So LLMs, great news today from SpaceX AI, from OpenAI, from others,
 but now also seeing the rise of the LQMs with Soundbox AQ
 and the recent award from the Department of Commerce as well.
 Yeah, and of course when we're talking about large quantitative models,
 which is where you play, that perhaps speaks to why you've just done this deal
 with Google Cloud as well.
 That's correct.
 So when you think about large enterprise customers,
 think about pharma companies, chemical companies, energy companies, governments,
 think about Google Cloud, one of the three premier clouds out there.
 Now for the first time, those customers can go on GCP marketplace
 and access the Soundbox AQ large quantitative models.
 What can they do with them?
 They can do stuff in the real world.
 They can make new medicines, new diagnostics.
 They can make new batteries, new materials, new construction materials,
 new materials for the energy sector, oil and gas sector.
 These are fundamental sectors to our economy.
 85% Morgan, 85% of our economy is quantitatively based.
 That's where these LQMs come in and very proud to partner with Google
 and Google Cloud specifically to now have it on the GCP marketplace.
 I want to go back to this deal you just did with Department of Commerce as well
 because as part of the deal, the US took a stake in Soundbox AQ as well.
 What went into that and why is that meaningful for both partners?
 I think it's great.
 You know, many countries out there have a sovereign wealth fund.
 Norway has a very successful one now at 2 trillion.
 The Gulf countries have been very successful with theirs.
 Singapore specifically has had a huge amounts of success with its sovereign wealth funds,
 tamasic and others.
 And it's time that America really has a sovereign wealth fund
 to really push forward the core technologies that advance our economy.
 And I see this investment in Soundbox AQ and in other companies
 that the Department of Commerce and other parts of the government are implementing
 as really part of a larger picture of a sovereign wealth strategy
 that builds value for the American taxpayer, builds value for our country,
 builds resiliency so that we can build semiconductors in America
 so that we can build the advanced pharmaceuticals in America as well.
 So as somebody who's on the front lines of some of this deal making that we are seeing
 to your point within the context of sovereign wealth fund dynamics here
 is your expectation that we're going to see more of those types of equity stakes
 taken in more of the tech companies.
 I mean, we've had reports on OpenAI, for example.
 I do think we're going to see more of it.
 The Department of Commerce recently announced letters of intent
 in a number of quantum hardware companies.
 I think that could be a very big positive for that sector.
 And what's critical is that the United States government
 has a number of key experts that it has in its disposal
 from the national laboratories and others.
 There's a lot of technology within the national laboratories that it can use
 to drive its decision making.
 And I do think that we'll see more of this kind of investment from the US government.
 Okay, I feel like we just scratched the surface.
 Jack, you're going to have to come back so we can continue this conversation.
 Jack Hittery of Soundbox AQ.
 It's great to have you on.
 Great to see you, Morgan.
 We're going to have more on the state of all things, AI.
 When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks exclusively with CNBC
 at 10 a.m. Eastern time that is going to be with Julia Borson.
 You don't want to miss it.
 Straight ahead, the SpaceX Dumbledore.
 Here's trying to recover today.
 After falling below their debut price.
 We've got a closer look at Musk and one of his biggest rivals ahead.
 But first, a check on shares of Levi Strauss,
 which are down despite the company reporting second quarter results
 that beat forecasts.
 Levi's also raising sales guidance,
 betting a premium denim products will appear,
 will appeal to higher income shoppers.
 A CEO, Michelle Goss, saying,
 all consumers are showing resilience.
 The company is still, quote, mindful of the external environment.
 Analyst pointing to the fact that, perhaps,
 that full-year raise had more to do with the first half of the year
 than the second half of the year.
 Expectations are very high coming into this report.
 Shares your down six percent pre-market.
 We're back after this.
 Which are America's top states for business?
 Get all the data and complete state-by-state analysis.
 See how your state measures up.
 America's top states for business.
 See the full list now at topstates.cmbc.com.
 Welcome back to Morning Call.
 Let's get a check on some of the morning's latest headlines.
 Breaking overnight,
 the campaign in Maine following a sexual assault delegation
 and collapse of support from fellow Democrats.
 The Maine Democratic Party now has until July 27th
 to choose a new nominee to take on
 incumbent Republican Susan Collins.
 Well, even without a nominee,
 Calgary still predicts that Democrats will win
 that Senate seat over Collins
 in November.
 You can see right there on your screen 63 percent chance
 on Calgary right now.
 Well, President Trump says he will ask the Supreme Court
 to re-here a case challenging his executive order
 that looks to restrict birthright citizenship.
 The court last month rejected Trump's attempt
 to restrict birthright citizenship,
 ruling that his directed directive
 violated language in the Constitution.
 Now, the high court rarely grants requests
 to re-here cases.
 A group of U.S. states reportedly getting set
 to sue paramount, though,
 as soon as next week to block
 its $110 billion deal for Warner Bros. discovery.
 A alleging it will hurt competition.
 And you can see those shares are
 down right now, premarket.
 A federal judge me in time approving Elon Musk's
 settlement with the SEC
 over his 2022 acquisition of Twitter,
 but not without raising red flags.
 The deal requires Musk's trust to pay
 one and a half million dollars
 after regulators said he saved about $150 million
 by delaying disclosure of his Twitter stake.
 And Michael Burry telling followers
 that he's bullish on Flutter and DraftKings
 taking new stakes in bulk.
 And Michael Burry telling followers
 DraftKings taking new stakes in both.
 Burry says prediction markets operate
 in a loophole alongside a heavily
 regulated and tax gambling industry,
 saying, quote, I believe that the
 political climate will not tolerate this.
 You could see shares of DraftKings
 up 2%, Flutter up 4%, premarket.
 And Prologist says that it remains
 ready to engage with UK warehousing
 giant sigros board over its nearly
 $17 billion takeover approach.
 Prologist has until July 22nd
 to make a formal offer or walk away.
 Those shares are unchanged right now,
 but this has been one to watch across both continents.
 And still on deck,
 blue energy, pushing back on a short seller report
 that it's understating its reliance on a key
 rare earth material from China.
 We're going to speak with the author
 of that report, one of the authors.
 One morning call continues.
 Welcome back to morning call.
 I'm Morgan Brennan.
 Let's get a check on US stock futures
 after the Dow's worst day since early June.
 You could see right there on your screen after a mix session.
 Yesterday, with all the major averages,
 closing at session highs.
 We're poised for a pop across the board this morning.
 The S&P is poised to open up 9 points.
 The Dow up 60.
 And the Nasdaq, the outperformer this morning,
 is tech has recalled a bid here in the past,
 we'll call it 18 hours or so,
 is poised to open up 203 points.
 Well, energy after oil's best day
 in more than a month.
 If we get a check there on the crude complex,
 WTI is down about half a percent this morning,
 trading around 73 dollars a barrel.
 Brent's down a similar amount trading
 just under 78 dollars a barrel.
 Keep in mind that we're still elevated
 from where we started the week.
 This, of course, amid the US launching new
 airstrikes against Iran last night
 after comments from President Trump
 that he believes that that ceasefire
 is, quote, over.
 Let's get a check on treasuries too.
 Ahead of jobless claims and existing home sales data
 later this morning.
 You can see largely higher across the curve,
 the US 10-year treasury yielding 4.57 percent right now.
 So pretty elevated from where we were,
 even just 24 hours ago.
 Fed sensitive to your treasury under a bit of pressure,
 yield under a bit of pressure here,
 trading around 4.19 percent.
 Let's get a check on the dollar index,
 which has been largely flat this morning,
 and that continues.
 Level there is 198.
 And let's get a check on global markets.
 A mixed session in Asia with the UK
 and cost be leading at gains there.
 It was a mixed session in early trading in Europe right now
 as well.
 And we are also watching shares of SpaceX
 because those are looking to rebound this morning.
 After closing at $148 a share yesterday,
 below the IPO trading price or opening price
 of $150, you can see SpaceX shares
 up about 1.5 percent right now pre-market.
 The stock has seen a two-day slide
 in the wake of its Nasdaq 100 inclusion on Tuesday
 and a flurry to put it mildly of analyst initiations
 that were largely bullish.
 But yesterday, SpaceX's slide coming amid reports
 that rival Blue Origin is raising about $10 billion
 in its first outside funding round.
 Details that I can confirm.
 This will value Jeff Bezos space company
 at $130 billion.
 And sources telling me that Bezos will contribute
 $2 billion into the round.
 Bezos speaking on the topic of outside investors
 and the possibility that this could happen
 with a capital raise in a sit-down with CNBC back in May.
 We finally have enough visibility into our future
 and our financial success that, you know,
 I've funded Blue out of my own
 by selling Amazon stock to fund Blue.
 But it's a good time actually
 to start thinking about the future
 and bring on some other outside investors.
 So we're considering that.
 Yeah. So perhaps would not be too terribly
 surprising, given the fact that investors
 are embracing the space space these days.
 And with Blue Origin specifically,
 it is gaining some momentum here across its businesses,
 across its products lines.
 And all of this is going to take much more investment
 as it does compete with SpaceX
 and go after more government contracts
 and more commercial business as well.
 So we'll keep an eye there.
 We're watching shares of global fuel cell giant,
 Bloom Energy as well this morning.
 That's after closing down nearly 6%.
 Yesterday, you can see shares are popping back up this morning
 up about 4.5% pre-market.
 The company whose shares are nearly 200%
 in the past two years, finding itself
 a target of a new investigation
 from short seller Hunter Brook,
 challenging repeated claims by Bloom CEO
 that the company has, quote, no China supply chain
 on China for a rare earth material called Scandium.
 Now a critical component of Bloom's solid state batteries
 used at AI data centers is Scandium.
 Hunter Brook goes on to say that Bloom's promised production goals
 to clients, including Oracle, may also require
 worth the rare earth than the world can actually provide.
 So in a statement to CNBC,
 Bloom Energy says, in part, quote,
 we are reviewing the report
 and will correct the record.
 Bloom's fuel cell platform is supported
 by a diversified multi-country supply chain
 built over two decades, longstanding commercial relationships
 and proprietary materials recovery technology.
 Joining me now is one of the co-authors of the report,
 Sam Cobbleman, publisher at Hunter Brook.
 And before we get into the details of the report,
 I just want to state the record here.
 Hunter Brook is basically comprised of two different businesses.
 It's the investigative journalism piece, the media piece,
 and then it is the investment firm piece.
 You operate under the journalist media piece.
 How would you respond to conflicts of interest
 in the wake of this report?
 People don't need to trust us or take our word for it.
 We share what we know, how we know it,
 and exactly how we proved it.
 And I think with this story,
 the truth is unambiguous.
 We found the CEO of Bloom repeatedly making a promise
 to the public, to investors on earnings calls,
 to journalists at the Wall Street Journal,
 that the company is not dependent on China
 for its scale up to power AI data centers,
 and the reality, which our incredible team
 of journalists found journalists with backgrounds
 ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Ocent Technical
 on X who's the best at looking at satellite imagery
 and trade data, and what we found overall
 was just clear lying from the CEO.
 And so I think when people review the evidence,
 it's going to be pretty obvious that we got this one right.
 Yeah, when we talk about rare Earth materials in general,
 I mean China controls so much of the marketplace.
 So are there other places in the world where a company
 such as Bloom could be getting scandium oxide
 and specifically enough based on its backlog?
 We ran the numbers, we built a model,
 and we don't think that without China,
 Bloom could be getting enough.
 What's important here is that Bloom is a trust-me-story.
 This is a $70 billion company that for 20 years
 has essentially had no success.
 And now people are betting on it to power AI data centers
 around the world.
 When right now, it's not powering a single AI data center
 despite having a market cap bigger than Vistra Energy.
 And so I think the burden of proof at this point
 in Bloom's history is on Bloom to show that it can actually deliver.
 And I think the fact that they're lying about this
 raises the question, what else are they lying about?
 So how do you respond to the response from Bloom Energy?
 I thought they were going to correct the record.
 I thought the response was fascinating.
 We reached out for comment as journalists do.
 They posted a blog post the night before we published,
 essentially claiming that they can power 25 gigawatts.
 Show me the scandium that enables that.
 And I think that our evidence is very clear.
 It's on our website, our process is meticulous
 and anyone can scrutinize it.
 Bloom is telling people to just trust them.
 And the truth is, if you look at Bloom and its history,
 it's big promise after big promise.
 And they have never actually delivered on any of it.
 And you look at their customers now, customers like Oracle.
 And Bloom's buying that demand.
 They gave Oracle a huge stake in Bloom.
 And so I'd love to see independent people independently
 vet out Bloom's supply chain.
 I'm sure that every single one of them is going to come away
 with the same conclusion that we had, which is that this company
 makes big claims that it can't actually back up.
 Did you reach out to some of those customers?
 I mean, what did the Oracle's of the world have to say
 in response to your reporting?
 Oracle didn't respond to our repeated requests for comment.
 There are other major customer AEP.
 We found that in their slide deck they'd originally said
 that there would be fuel cells up by 2028.
 It's now pushed out to 2030.
 Oracle's main project in New Mexico,
 which we called around about and did reporting on,
 has been delayed to 2029, might go into 2030s.
 So look, Bloom's increased its guide.
 They keep raising all of their estimates.
 But I think what's clear is that the projects that they're
 supposed to power are meaningfully delayed,
 and have been delayed since they recently reported earnings.
 And if you speak to their customers who are actually independent,
 well, there's not that many customers to go interview.
 These guys have cycled through customers for decades,
 making these big promises.
 And we'll see what happens.
 But our team of reporters spent a lot of time on this story
 and I'm incredibly proud of the work that they did.
 And in this moment when there's so much excitement around AI,
 I think that there will obviously be some stories
 that got ahead of themselves.
 And I can't imagine a company with a bigger story
 and a bigger market cap than Bloom with less evidence to back it up.
 And look, I don't actually know what's going to happen with Bloom.
 We can just report the facts that we have.
 Yeah.
 But I think it's worth asking if there's a Theranos of the AI moment.
 Who is it?
 Wow.
 Okay.
 Sam Coppelman of Hundredbrook is great to have you on.
 Thanks.
 Thanks.
 We'll be tracking this.
 I'm going to come here on morning call, including Shares of SK Heinecks.
 Jumping overseas ahead of that US trading debut,
 we get that pricing tonight.
 Why the premium around the stock may not be fading anytime soon.
 And as we had to break two stocks, two other stocks
 that we're watching today, Honeywell Technologies,
 updating its guidance for the year, raising its second half
 and full your profit targets, sales forecasts,
 remaining unchanged, the company also completing a one-for-two
 reverse stock split.
 And those shares are up fractionally this morning.
 Also Costco, reporting sales rose last month.
 It's highest monthly sales of the year so far.
 But same store sales growth decelerating from May as well.
 And you can see those shares are down about 1%
 more in call right back.
 Welcome back to morning call.
 Shares of SK Heinecks rebounding today, closing up more than 5%.
 But first I'm supposed to tell you about what we're seeing
 with the futures market because the Dow has been flirting
 with the flat line here since we gave you your last futures check.
 And you can see right there on your screen.
 It's basically flat right now.
 Similar story for the S&P as we run out of some steam here pre-market.
 Okay, so Shares of SK Heinecks, well those have been rebounding today,
 closing up more than 5% and snapping a three-day.
 We're losing streak.
 The move coming as the anticipation continues to build for the chipmakers.
 US listing, which begins trading tomorrow, prices tonight.
 A test for investor appetite for one of the more important companies
 in the AI supply chain.
 Christina Parts and Eveless is here now with more on why it seems everyone
 wants to get their hands on a piece of SK Heinecks.
 Hi Christina.
 Hi Morgan.
 Well, like you said, the SK Heinecks, the US listing hits the Nasdaq tomorrow.
 And it's the biggest share sale since SpaceX's record IPO just last month.
 The offering is more than seven times subscribed.
 This over-subscribed according to Bloomberg.
 And everyone to your point just wants in.
 The question is, what are they willing to pay for it?
 The company is selling nearly 178 million ADR.
 So that's American depository receipts.
 One representing roughly a tenth of a common share.
 And they're actually expected to trade at a premium to the same exact stock in Seoul, South Korea.
 Barkley's bets even maybe 10 to 15% higher here in the United States.
 So why would anyone pay more for the same company?
 Scarcity.
 SK Heinecks is the purest bet on HBM.
 That's the high bandwidth memory powering in videos AI chips with roughly 56% of that market.
 One, no doubt a competitor is diversified across DRAM and NAN, other types of memory.
 And it's based in the United States.
 And then you have Samsung, which is a giant conglomerate exposed to memory, but also to smartphones and other appliances.
 For US investors who couldn't easily buy Korean stocks, this is the first clean way in on Friday.
 And normally, hedge funds would arbitrage that premium away by the cheap Korean shares, short the expensive ADR US shares.
 Wait for the price to actually converge, but that price difference may not work this time.
 And I say that because you can actually convert the US, the ADRs into Korean shares, but regulators in Korea may not let you go the other way.
 TSMC's ADR for example, has the same one-way structure.
 They launched back in 1997 here in the United States.
 And it's traded at a double digit premium for decades.
 And then you compare that to Alibaba, Chinese tech firm, where investors can freely swap between the US and Hong Kong shares.
 And the two prices you can see on your screen, stay pretty identical, no premium.
 So watch where these ADRs open tomorrow and where they actually settle.
 If the premium holds, it tells you US investors will just pay up for pure AI memory exposure.
 Even after a brutal week for chip stocks and SK Heinigs, which like you said, close 5% higher in South Korea.
 All right, great insight. Christina Parts, Neveless.
 Thank you so much. And join us again soon because I love getting your reporting on the semi-conductor trade.
 We'll straight ahead, truly.
 The morning call crew tuning up the trading day ahead.
 We're going to get a reaction to that report from Christina too, including why one member is buying the dip in one slice of the ongoing tech trade turmoil.
 Welcome back to morning call.
 It's time for your call sheet where we look at the topics driving the trading day ahead.
 Crew members today, Tom Lee, a fun strat.
 Also seen the CNBC contributor still with us.
 Adam Christopher Lee, a vital knowledge and micro work of Jones trading.
 It's great to have you all here.
 Mike, you're sitting here across from Ian's studio.
 I'm going to kick this conversation off with you.
 We were just talking to Christina Parts, Neveless about SK Heinigs.
 Price is tonight.
 It starts trading here in the US tomorrow. What are you watching?
 How is it going to trade?
 Again, it's going to be interesting to actually have access to one of these major Korean memory makers here in the United States.
 As Christina mentioned, the whole Taiwan semi aspect of that trade is interesting.
 I'm really curious to see will more US investors, will they lighten up on micron technology to add SK Heinigs exposure?
 Because again, this is one of the, I believe, the largest memory maker in the world.
 So it's going to be a key trade there.
 And will it steal some US investment dollars?
 Yeah, Adam, what do you think?
 Yeah, these are something to be very interesting to watch.
 Just as a gauge of how well the market can absorb all the supply.
 So SpaceX was the last big example.
 We get SK Heinigs tomorrow at the ADR as CXMT in China will also be coming public soon.
 So there's going to be a lot of tech supply that I think the market's been watching very closely.
 This is kind of as a gauge for sentiment.
 And with the IPO pipeline being very heavy looking at the balance of the year, these issuance that will be very important obviously.
 Yeah, I mean, a heavy IPO pipeline, Tom.
 And we could certainly talk about the equity supply that's coming to market here.
 But we've seen it on the debt side too.
 How does it speak to where we are in this AI build out and how investors are approaching it now?
 Well, AI is probably one of the most important structural stories in our lifetime.
 I think it was even interesting in the FOMC minutes from the June meeting that AI and infrastructure build was brought up many times.
 So I think it's a really important area for investors.
 And I do think having additional exposure, especially to a company that's generating a lot of free cash will currently makes a lot of sense.
 Yeah, and of course, you know, tech was an out performer yesterday in the midst of geopolitical question marks,
 which we'll get into in just a moment a bit more with the president's comments about Iran yesterday, Mike.
 But I guess how to think about that in terms of the rotation more broadly.
 We've seen it to other sectors which have been also hitting record highs or at multi-year highs.
 Yeah, I mean, the AI trade has been going on for several years now.
 So it's one of those situations where a lot of valuations have been pushed up.
 I think the most important aspect you talked about the equity and debt issuance is the hyperscalers, their business models changing.
 They're becoming 21st century industrial companies that may warrant lower multiples.
 So in that sense, you know, maybe investors are taking some profits there and they're looking elsewhere more broadly throughout the market.
 Personally, I'd be looking more defensively to value names, consumer staples, large cap pharma.
 I think there's attractive valuations there if you're worried about valuations and technology being stretched.
 Yeah, and Adam, I know you've written a lot about this particularly from the hyperscaler standpoint.
 The fact that we have seen that under performance this year.
 Yeah, I mean, the market's definitely kind of rotating back and forth between the hyperscalers, the companies that are funding the data center build out
 and then the taking shovel companies, the companies that are at the moment benefiting from it.
 And this kind of been this tug of war, which will be a huge theme during the upcoming YouTube running season.
 I think there's a lot of anticipation from the hyperscalers about if they moderate at all.
 I don't think anyone assumes they're going to cut catbacks outright, but perhaps just qualitatively moderate the commentary about how they speak about free cash flow and catbacks going forward.
 Even catbacks is a percent of revenue effect that ratio can start to trend lower going forward.
 That's going to be watched very, very closely.
 So there's definitely kind of this bifurcated trade of taking shovel versus the hyperscaler, the funders.
 Tom, I want to get your thoughts on this broadening out we've seen in the market.
 I think it's healthy.
 There is widespread earnings growth and there's a lot of companies that are benefiting from this capital spending.
 And I think something that as we start looking at the second half is I think inflation pressures are actually easing.
 And I think there's a lot of companies and groups that are going to benefit from that.
 So to me, it makes a lot of sense that this is a broadening trade.
 Adam, I want to go back to you about Iran and what we're seeing in terms of rashing tensions in the region right now too.
 Because you have been saying it for a while that investors were arguably too complacent in their positioning for this peace trade.
 Yeah, I mean, I think there's been a lot of complacency with regards to Iran.
 I think some of it is justified.
 In terms of a full resumption of war, I don't think either side wants to see that occur.
 Which is why some type of negotiated settlement remains the most likely outcome.
 It's not going to be a linear path.
 So there's going to be bumps along the road.
 This week we obviously have a pretty big bump.
 It's a lot to see how it unfolds.
 But it just as far as there being kind of a military solution to the conflict, at least one who risks Trump and the White House are willing to bear.
 That does not really seem to be on the table.
 And so some type of a settlement I think remains the most likely outcome.
 But definitely as Brent got down to $70 or so, the market was very complacent and at risk for some type of a joke.
 Which we saw the last couple of days.
 Yeah, Mike, your thoughts?
 Yeah, I agree with Adam there.
 Mainly, I don't think we're going to see large scale combat again.
 It all comes down to the straightforward moves stay open.
 It seems like it's going to remain open at this point in time.
 Obviously that could change later today.
 But the fundamentals and oil seem very, very bearish.
 They were bearish before the war.
 Once the war moves open back up, the bearish again.
 So as long as oil remains out of control, I think you're going to see inflation start to come back down again the second half of the year.
 But again, obviously the war moves as close as we have an issue.
 Okay, we have less than 30 seconds, Tom.
 I want to give you the last word here.
 Well, I'll just make an observation.
 I think that we know this war is disrupting oil supplies.
 But oil, I think, has barely reacted.
 I mean, it's even at 72.
 It's so far off the 120.
 And so I think it's in some ways kind of a green light for stocks, actually.
 Okay.
 We're going to leave the conversation there.
 It's great to have you all here for our morning call crew.
 As we do see futures higher fractionally right now.
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